Suspects’ names may be withheld to protect victims, say police WPS explains decision not to name teacher accused of sexually exploiting student By: Malak Abas Posted: 7:00 PM CST Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2020 Last Modified: 7:34 PM CST Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2020 Updates

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While there may be a precedent for doing so, the WPS says it has good reason to have not yet named a local high school teacher arrested for allegedly sexually exploiting a student.

There has been at least one recent case where police decided to name the teacher accused – in July 2019, police laid two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation against Ishmael Mustapha, a former teacher at the University of Winnipeg collegiate. Two of the women who had come forward were 16 and 18 at the time of the alleged incidents. In December, it was announced that the Crown would be staying the charges should Mustapha sign a protection order.

Police spokesperson Jay Murray said these cases are looked at separately, and that situation should not colour the current one, involving a teacher at Grant Park High School. It is alleged that there were multiple incidents between the 27-year-old woman and a 16-year-old student, occurring between Dec. 1, 2019 and Feb. 8

“The WPS may, at times, withhold the name of an accused individual when we believe that providing that information may identify a victim – especially those under the age of 18,” he said in a statement.

“The WPS may, at times, withhold the name of an accused individual when we believe that providing that information may identify a victim– especially those under the age of 18.” – Police spokesperson Jay Murray in a statement.

“Every situation is different, and is looked at on a case-by-case basis. We often have to balance identifying an accused person with that of potentially identifying an individual who may have confided their story to police in private. This is not a decision that we take lightly and is regularly made in consultation with the investigators involved in a file.

“You are comparing two cases on the surface, but underneath, there are many investigative differences. There are things such as timelines, ages and circumstances that can be different.”

Dr. Alexandra Lysova, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who specializes in female offenders, said any decision based on protecting the victim made by police was “valid,” but could expand on the response by the criminal justice system to female offenders in particular.

Lysova said based on her research, while cases concerning female offenders are statistically more rare, there is still a misconception that they do not exist or should not be taken as seriously as the same crimes committed by men.

“Female offenders, female perpetrators, are kind of atypical in cases of sexual crimes in schools, and even in intimate partner relationships. Usually, the typical image of the offender or a perpetrator is a man.” – Criminology professor Dr. Alexandra Lysova

“Female offenders, female perpetrators, are kind of atypical in cases of sexual crimes in schools, and even in intimate partner relationships,” she said. “Usually, the typical image of the offender or a perpetrator is a man.”

Oftentimes, according to Lysova, the initial reaction can be different when the public learns a perpetrator is a woman, and this must be considered when discussing why some perpetrators are named publicly and some are not.

“Maybe the response to this crime may be, I would say, kind of intense comparing to if the crime was committed by a man, and maybe people may act on their lack of knowledge and understanding of why it happened,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

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