Aug 06, 2008 - 05:37 PM

By Jennifer Stone and Stefanie Swinson

DURHAM REGION -- An arrest has been made following the abduction and sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl early today.

A statement issued by the Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service this afternoon said that a suspect was taken into custody today at 8:20 a.m. and charged with abduction and sexual assault.

Charged is Stanley James Tippett, 32, of Collison Cresc., Peterborough.

The statement said the investigation is ongoing, that further charges are possible and the suspect will make a court appearance tomorrow.

The statement said the suspect was found in a vehicle on Manvers Station Road near Porter Road in Manvers Township and was arrested without incident.

The situation unfolded at around 1:30 a.m. Police say a 12-year-old girl had been at a birthday party with friends in the south end of Peterborough when, somehow, she wound up in a red van.

"We don’t know if the 12-year-old got in willingly or was pulled in," Durham Police spokesman David Selby said.

At about 2:30 a.m., residents near Courtice Secondary School, east of Oshawa, heard a scream and someone called police.

"I heard somebody yell," nearby resident Kathy Girard said. "I didn’t take any notice, because you hear stuff all the time. I’ve called police before and they don’t come because there’s parties in there all the time.

"Now, I wish I had (called)," she said.

Initially, police were uncertain what sort of situation they were responding to, Selby said.

"Often, when you get a call for a car behind a high school, it could be people smoking dope or a couple making out," he said.

When the red van took off, police initially gave chase, eventually calling off the pursuit as speeds made public safety a concern.

The van was later found in the Browning St. and Shelley Ave. area of south Oshawa. Police searched for evidence this morning at the high school as well as on Townline Rd., south of Olive Ave., where tire tracks were found.

It was only when they went back to investigate that they found the 12-year-old, who had been sexually assaulted.

"It’s a few minutes later that we go back and check the scene and find her," Selby said.

Police in Peterborough say the 12-year-old’s grandmother, with whom the girl was to spend the night, called to report her missing around 1:35 a.m., when she failed to return from the birthday party.

Initially, there was concern for a 16-year-old girl who had been with the 12-year-old, and couldn’t be immediately located. At about 7:30 a.m., she was found, safe and sound, at another friend’s house in Peterborough, Selby said.

In an interview with the Toronto Star in June 1999, Tippett confirmed that he was a suspect in the case of Sharmini Anandavel, a 15-year-old girl who went missing on June 12, 1999 and whose remains were found four months later.

Tippett said at the time he had been interviewed, his home and car searched and followed by the police.

Tippett granted that interview, and subsequent ones with the Star over the next three years, to "set the record straight," he said. He knew Sharmini, and other children in the area, because he used to take them swimming, he said. He also admitted to helping Sharmini find a job, but had only once provided her with an application for a job with a North York swimming pool at the end of May. That was the last time he saw her, he told the Star.

In December, 2005, Tippett was sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary for criminal harassment and breach of a court order.

According to the agreed statement of facts and testimony in the case, Tippett approached a young woman in line at a Wal-Mart job fair in October, 2005, and offered her a job at the local YMCA, saying it paid $8 an hour and included health and dental benefits.

The next day, he called her at home and invited her to come to his house to pick up a job application, but she refused.

Two days later, the woman, described only as a young immigrant, was in Taco Bell applying for a job when Tippett walked in and berated her for seeking work there when he had a job for her, court was told.

He handed her an application bearing what appeared to be the YMCA logo, then asked her for personal details, including her name, address and hobbies, but didn't ask for her social insurance number.

Three days later, the woman found a birthday card from Tippett at her front door.

When she called the agency to learn of the status of her job application, she was told there were no jobs being offered and that Tippett did not work there. She then called the police.

"Police acted very quickly - he was arrested - and perhaps prevented a very serious crime from taking place," Crown attorney John Marsland told the court at the time.

A search of Tippett's van turned up duct tape, rope, a jackknife, shears, measuring tape, orange pylons, a hammer and long plastic ties, Marsland said.

-- with reporting by Paola Loriggio and files from the Toronto Star