Richard Mantha handed 12-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting 3 vulnerable women

A Calgary man who targeted and sexually assaulted several vulnerable women who worked in Calgary’s sex trade has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. 

Mantha, 62, was convicted of six offences in April: sexually assaulting three women — one of whom he drugged, and another he suffocated and assaulted with a weapon — as well as uttering threats against a fourth woman.

On Thursday, Justice Judith Shriar imposed the lengthy prison term following sentencing arguments last month where prosecutor Dominique Mathurin argued for a 10 to 13 year term while defence lawyer Justin Dean asked the judge to consider a five to seven year sentence.

“The road to today has been long,” said Mathurin in an interview after the sentencing decision.

“We are so grateful to each of the victims for coming forward and giving their testimony, which takes immense bravery and without whom a conviction would not have been possible.”

Mantha’s victims were four women who struggled with drug addiction at the time. A publication ban protects the identities of three of the victims.

‘Honoured to be standing here’

A fourth, Aimee Ert, successfully applied to the court to have the publication ban on her identity lifted. 

In April 2022, Matha attacked Ert at his rural trailer. She managed to get away from him, running toward the highway, where she collapsed on the roadside. A passerby helped get her to hospital. 

Ert was in court Thursday as the sentencing decision was delivered and said she was “feeling some closure.”

“I feel honoured to be standing here for the women who couldn’t,” said Ert, who recently celebrated being sober for four years. 

In handing down the sentence Thursday, Shriar noted that Ert’s victim impact statement was “one of the most moving this court has ever heard.”

“I felt heard,” said Ert, reacting to the judge’s words. 

“I felt that everything that I had experienced throughout my entire life, being an addict and the trauma that we experience …  I was able to try to take that out and have it heard and create a positive impact from it.”

Anti-social personality disorder

Mantha was arrested in April 2023 after a massive police search of his rented rural property, where he lived in a trailer inside a quonset about 16 kilometres east of Chestermere, Alta. 

His trial started in January 2024 and faced several lengthy delays because he fired two sets of lawyers and then had two health incidents, including a stroke, which has left him unable to speak. 

During the trial, court heard that Mantha targeted women on the Forest Lawn stroll, a prostitution area in the southeast neighbourhood along 19th Avenue.

Shriar noted that a report prepared by a psychiatrist during the trial found that Mantha has an anti-social personality disorder, a disregard for others and lacks remorse for his actions.

Mantha has just over five years credit for the time he served pending trial, leaving six years and nine months left on his sentence.