'I'm so sorry for that poor girl': Man pleads guilty in vicious sexual assault in Lethbridge

A man accused in a vicious attack that left a southern Alberta woman having to learn how to walk and talk again has pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault.

DenzelDre Colton Bird, 21, also pleaded guilty tobreaking and enteringand theft.

The pleas were entered Friday in provincial court in Lethbridge, Alta., beforeJudge Jerry LeGrandeur.

Bird was alsocharged with attempted murder, sexual assault with a weapon andaggravated assault.

He was arrested after a 25-year-old woman in Lethbridge was attacked while walkingto workin the dark last September. She was struck with a weapon, dragged into an alley and sexually assaulted.

• Guilty plea planned for man accused of brutal sexual assault in Lethbridge

She was discovered by a passerby and taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. The victim was released in late January and her family has said she continues to recover.

Sentencing has been put off to Jan. 5, 2018, so that pre-sentencing reports may be compiled, including a Gladue report as Bird is a member of the Blood Tribe.

An agreed statement of facts was read in court on Friday.

It indicated that the victim, who cannot be identified under a court order, was attacked sometime after leaving forwork at about 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 30, 2016. Her walk usually took about 30 minutes.

Bird, who had been drinking whiskey hours earlier, was sitting at a bus stop at Sixth Avenue between 20thand 21st streets in the city's south end. He was armed with a two-foot length of blue metal pipe stolen from a nearby garage.

As the woman passed, he stood up and hit her over the head with the pipe from behind.

"She fell to the ground unconscious and helpless," the statement said."It is most likely she hit her head when she hit the ground as well. These blows fractured her skull in more than one place, and fractured her facial bones as well."

Bird dragged her into the nearby alley, where he removed her clothing from the lower half of her body and sexually assaulted her. He then tried to hide her body by stuffing her partway into a residential garbage can.

Bird then threw the pipe into a nearby yard.A civilian searcher later found the weapon.

Passersby found victim in alley

The victim was foundby two men going to work. They called 911 just before 8 a.m. They reported they had found a partially naked woman, face-down in a garbage bin in an alley. She was bleeding and one front tooth was missing.

When paramedics arrived, she was near death. They rushed her to Chinook Regional Hospital. Her identity was unknown at that time.

When the victim didn't showup for work at 7 a.m., her boss tried to reach her and then called her husband, who was out of the province at the time. He also tried to reach her, and eventually called police. He immediately flew home to Lethbridge.

Bird showed up at a local homeless shelter at 8:36 a.m. A friend there noticed blood all over Bird's jacket and shoes and helped him get rid of some of the clothes.

The agreed statement of facts indicates that DNA evidence from the victim and the clothingidentified the accused as the perpetrator of the offences.

On Oct. 5, 2016, police found the accused in an apartment on the west side of Lethbridge.

He was initially arrested on outstanding warrants and was then told he was also under arrest for attempted murder. He was warned he would face a charge of murder if the victim died.

Accused admitted to the attack

He spoke to a lawyer before a three-hour interview with police. Heeventually admitted to the attack after being shown photos of the evidence and video surveillance from the shelter.

"I'm tired of lying, I'm tired of running," Bird told the officers. "I'm sorry for that poor girl. I'm so sorry for that poor girl."

The victim suffered a severe, traumatic brain injury as the result of the accused's attack. She was in a medically-induced coma for weeks.

After a series of treatments, including a stay at the neurological rehabilitation unit, she was finally discharged from hospital on Jan. 31, 2017.

She has received physiotherapy, occupational therapy, prescribed medications and psychological follow-up.

She has not been able to drive or return to work. She has had to relearn many simple things and has struggled with speech and cognition, walking, balance and much more.

She has no memory of being attacked by the accused.