A man whose crimes a judge has called "every woman's worst nightmare" has been released from prison and is living in Surrey.
Michal Popek, 44, was handed a 12-year prison sentence in November 2020 for sexually assaulting four women who were strangers to him – including two women walking on Burnaby trails in broad daylight in February and March of 2016.
He has now been granted a "one chance statutory release" ahead of the end of that sentence in December 2025, according to Surrey RCMP.
The detachment put out a news release Thursday to inform the public that a "dangerous sex offender" who "poses a risk to adolescent girls and adult women, including strangers," is living in the community.
Popek, who will be monitored by correctional services and Surrey RCMP through "traditional police methods" as well as electronic monitoring, is bound by multiple conditions:
- A 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew
- Not to consume, purchase or possess alcohol
- Not to consume, purchase or possess drugs other than prescribed medication taken as prescribed and over the counter drugs taken as recommended by the manufacturer
- Not to attend any business where the primary source of income is derived from the sale of alcohol
- Not to attend any business where the primary source of income is derived from the sale of cannabis
- Not to be in the company of sex trade workers/escorts
Popek is 5-foot-5, weighs 150 pounds and has a medium complexion, brown eyes and short brown hair.
Anyone who sees or knows of Popek violating any of the conditions is asked to call 911 immediately.
After the end of his prison term in December 2025, Popek will be bound by a 10-year long-term supervision order.
'Violent and horrific'
Popek was sentenced after pleading guilty to four counts of sexual assault for attacks on strangers between March 2015 and April 2016.
One of those assaults, on a 17-year-old girl, lasted for 40 minutes, according to court documents.
The girl had been on her school lunch break, walking on the Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail on Feb. 18, 2016.
She couldn't find her friends in the usual spot and started to retrace her steps.
She had seen Popek a few minutes earlier and saw him again.
The second time, he grabbed her by the waist and threw her to the ground.
"She attempted to punch him, but her attempt was futile," states a sentencing ruling on the case.
In the second Burnaby attack 17 days later (on March 6, 2016), Popek grabbed a 20-year-old woman from behind and threw her to the ground.
The woman had been walking on the Trans Mountain Trail north of the Meadowood Park area listening to music on her headphones.
"She fought back with her umbrella and tried to scratch him," states the ruling. "She told him she had cancer. He paused only very briefly and then continued in his attempt to remove her pants."
Popek ran off when a man walking the trail interrupted his attack.
Police task force
Popek's attacks happened amid a string of sexual assaults in Burnaby in early 2016, and the Burnaby RCMP – which struck a task force to find the perpetrator – warned women not to walk alone, especially in the area around the Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail.
Popek was finally caught in Vancouver on April 19, 2016 after another sexual assault in broad daylight.
He had broken into an 84-year-old woman's home at about 8:15 a.m. and opened her bedroom door while she was in bed.
When she called out to her son who lived in the basement, Popek left.
Outside, he knocked his final victim, a 54-year-old woman taking pictures of flowers along the street, to the ground and groped her, trying to pull down her pants. She hit him in the face with her camera.
A Good Samaritan ran to help, and Popek ran away, but this time the police caught up to him.
"All of the crimes were serious; all were violent," said B.C. provincial court Judge Ellen Gordon in a November 2020 sentencing ruling. "While sexual assaults of strangers on the street are exceptionally rare, they are every woman's worst nightmare, and there are four women here for whom that nightmare became a reality."
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