He pleaded guilty to sexual assault.His victim has never come forward

A Toronto man has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting an unknown woman who has never come forward to police, but whose “terrifying” attack outside the front door of an eastend Toronto home was captured by surveillance footage.

- JACQUES GALLANT

Odele Olafimihan was captured on a home surveillance video while sexually assaulting a woman on Oct. 14, 2023.

According to legal experts, it is rare for prosecutors to be able to prove a sexual assault happened without having the testimony of the alleged victim, let alone not knowing her identity.

The 2023 sex assault happened in public and was captured in disturbing home surveillance footage that was then turned over to police by the home’s residents, leading to Odele Olafimihan’s arrest. Olafimihan, 43, pleaded guilty on Aug. 13 and was sentenced the same day.

Court heard that Olafimihan started to follow the woman as he wandered around the area after leaving a bar in the early hours of Oct. 14, 2023. He then approached her as she knocked on the door of a home whose residents she did not know on a residential street just north of Danforth Avenue, near Pape Avenue.

The woman herself has never come forward. Police weren’t able to locate her, and her identity remains unknown.

“There is no victim impact statement before me, but there is a woman in this community who will never forget the night,” wrote Ontario Court Justice Cidalia Faria in her decision sentencing Olafimihan to four years, a joint request from the Crown and defence.