A B.C. man and dangerous sex offender is facing a decade in prison for attacking a SkyTrain attendant in 2021, less than a year after he was released back into the community.
Howard Geddes Skelding was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of assault causing bodily harm and forcible confinement for assaulting a SkyTrain attendant back in 2021. He was arrested at the scene and remained in custody until May 5, a release from Metro Vancouver Trainsit Police said Thursday (May 16).
On July 25, 2021, Geddes Skelding, who was 29 years old at the time, followed a SkyTrain attendant at Braid Station in New Westminster as she went ino an employee crew room, “positioning himself directly outside the door and allegedly began rubbing his genitals,” transit police said in a news release four days after the incident.
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The attendant opened the door a short time later, and Geddes Skelding “quickly forced the door open and entered the crew room.” He then punched her in the stomach before shoving her to the ground.
She fought back as he attempted to pull her to the ground, “punching her in the head and pulling her hair.”
The attendant was eventually able to open the crew room door, “with the suspect still trying to drag her back in, before she was finally able to free herself from him.”
Transit police arrested Geddes Skelding as he attempted to leave the station.
Police, at the time, said Geddes Skelding was very well known to police.
Eleven months before the attack, Surrey RCMP notified the public on Aug. 15, 2020 that Geddes Skelding, a dangerous sex offender, had been released from BC Corrections and would be living in Surrey, with a high risk to re-offend.
READ MORE: Police warn of dangerous sex offender, with high risk to re-offend, living in Surrey
He had already been convicted of a number of offences, including sexual assault, sexual interference, robbery and possession of a weapon.
Geddes-Skelding, according to RCMP, was “considered to be at risk of committing offences against women and is known to approach women while exposing his penis or masturbating and then sexually assaulting them.”