WARNING: This story contains disturbing details; discretion is advised.

A man convicted and then acquitted in the murder of a Winnipeg teen nearly 42 years ago has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting and forcibly confining a woman in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside earlier this year.

Mark Edward Grant, who turns 63 on Friday, was originally charged with unlawful confinement, sexual assault with a weapon, assault with a weapon, and uttering threats but pleaded guilty last week to unlawful confinement and the lesser charge of sexual assault.

During a sentencing hearing in BC Supreme Court Monday, Crown prosecutor Victoria Young read an Agreed Statement of Facts detailing the horrific offences that unfolded over five hours on Jan. 8, 2026.

Court heard that Grant and the 61-year-old victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, were neighbours in the same single-room occupancy (SRO) building.

Grant lived in the unit directly above the woman and the two had met approximately one month prior, when he moved into the apartment complex.

According to the Agreed Statement of Facts, Grant and the victim voluntarily consumed drugs together on the evening of Jan. 7 in her apartment, and later in his unit.

After finishing the drugs, the court heard that the woman asked Grant if he had any more drugs, and he told her to ask her son, who lived in a nearby building, for money to purchase more drugs.

The victim agreed but instead left and returned to her apartment, where she got ready to go to bed.

A short time later, the accused knocked on her door and said he had obtained more drugs, and invited her to his apartment to consume them.

Around 12:15 a.m., the woman came back up to Grant’s apartment wearing a pajama top, grey shirt, pink bra, brown shorts and boxer underwear.

Court heard Grant directed her to the bathroom, indicating the drugs were in there.

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As the victim crossed the bathroom threshold, the accused pushed her from behind and covered her mouth and nose with a glue trap or sticky paper used for pest control.

Grant then pulled out a knife and held it to the victim’s throat, saying words to the effect of “Cooperate and you’ll be fine. Just do what I say, shut up, don’t talk,” according to the Agreed Statement of Facts.

The accused then pulled the woman by her hair out of the bathroom and threw her on the ground in front of his bed, where he tied her hands behind her back and bound her wrists together.

Court heard Grant pulled the victim up by her hair onto his bed, and continued to brandish the knife while holding the glue trap up to her face.

He sliced open her shirt and bra, pulled off her shorts and underwear and then removed his clothing.

Court heard the accused ripped off the glue trap and forced the victim to have oral sex, becoming frustrated and angry with her when he was unable to get an erection.

Grant said words to the effect of “You better get me off, or you’re going to stay here until you do,” according to the Agreed Statement of Facts.

He attempted penile penetration of the victim’s vagina but was unable to do so due to the lack of an erection.

The accused attempted anal sex but did not proceed after the complainant lied about having a sexually transmitted infection to dissuade him, court heard.

Instead, Grant digitally penetrated the victim’s vagina and at some point, tried unsuccessfully to insert a large unidentified object into her vagina.

Young said at no point did the complainant consent to sexual activity with Grant, and she repeatedly told him to “please stop, don’t do this”.

The accused also put a belt around the complainant’s neck “pulling it with such force so as to restrain her”, Young told the court.

Exhausted and fearing for her life, the victim resorted to negotiation tactics to appease and gain the accused’ trust – telling him she liked him, and offering to be his girlfriend.

Over time, the woman was able to get Grant to untie both of her wrists and around 5:15 a.m., she managed to escape his apartment.

The accused finally allowed her to leave after she offered to go to her son to get money for more drugs, promising to return before 6:00 a.m.

The woman told police “the only thing that saved her was her belief that the accused needed drugs more than sex,” court heard.

According to the Agreed Statement of Facts, the victim arrived at her son’s apartment around 5:30 a.m., visibly distraught, “hysterical and crying”.

The complainant told her son, “I was raped all night.”

In an interview Weds., Vancouver police said they are satisfied the sentence has ensured some justice.

“A 10-year sentence doesn’t make up for the horror of what the victim experienced but it is a good sentence and there is a conviction, and that is sort of indicative of the strength of the investigation,” Sgt. Adam Donaldson said.

In 2007, Grant was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Candace Derksen of Winnipeg, who vanished on her way home from school in November 1984.

Derksen’s frozen body was found bound in a shed two months later.

Twenty-three years later, DNA testing cracked the cold case, and led to Grant’s arrest.

A jury found Grant guilty of second-degree murder in 2011, but the conviction was overturned on appeal because the trial judge erred by excluding evidence pointing to another possible killer.

In 2017, Grant was acquitted of murder at his second judge-alone trial.

Grant has been in custody since January, following his sexual assault arrest in Vancouver.

Police said District 5 patrol officers handled the case from start to finish.

Court heard a search of Grant’s apartment located glue traps, belts, shoestrings, knives and the victim’s pink bra and grey jacket – both with damage consistent with knife cuts.

The victim’s DNA was found on the accused’s penile swab and on one of his belts, according to the Agreed Statement of Facts.

“This is a terrible incident,” Donaldson told Global News. “This was something that happened behind closed doors. It happened over several hours, a really prolonged sexual assault – something that nobody should ever be subject to.”

While the victim was not present at the sentencing hearing, Young read information on her behalf that she said would be consistent with a victim impact statement.

“I thought I was going to die; I was so scared. This didn’t just change my life, it ended it.”

Through prosecutors, the victim expressed how she has become an entirely different person and doesn’t trust anyone anymore.

“I don’t let anyone in. I feel like I see his (Grant’s) face everywhere I go. Anyone I see on the street who looks like him, it triggers me. I feel like what happened was my fault; I shouldn’t have been so trusting. Even though it impacted me, I won’t let it break me. I went to rehab after this happened; I am now committed to sobriety.”

With credit for time spent in custody since his arrest, Grant has just over nine years left to serve.

Justice Alan M. Ross also imposed a lifetime firearms and weapons prohibition and ordered Grant to comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act.