A Vancouver woman is telling a frightening story about a man who allegedly terrorized her at her East Vancouver home back in March.
The woman also says the same man — a repeat sex offender who was on probation — should not have been walking the streets two months later when he is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in a public washroom.
John Frederick Field, 62, was taken into custody by Vancouver police at the woman’s East 1st Avenue home on March 26 and released within 24 hours.
On May 28, Field was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting the 14-year-old as part of what the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) described as a “crime spree” that took place in the Oakridge neighbourhood.
CBC News confirmed the identity of the East Vancouver woman through court documents and has agreed to only use her first name — Danielle — because she fears for her safety.
“I can’t even imagine if I didn’t have a dog and I didn’t wake up and he did break into my house, like, the kind of trauma I would be dealing with,” she said.
Danielle said she was asleep in her third-floor apartment on March 26 when her dog started barking at the back patio door around 4:30 a.m.
“As soon as I got out of bed, that’s when I started to hear someone tap on my window. And at first the tapping started pretty gently … then as I came out of my bedroom and got my housecoat on, I saw him through my kitchen patio door,” said the 28-year-old.
“He’s just standing there looking at me … so I got closer to the door and I realized, oh, this is a stranger. And then as I screamed, realizing that I didn’t know this person, he started walking toward the door and started banging on the door.
“I grabbed a knife that was on my kitchen counter. My dog was barking — he’s freaking out. The guy’s still banging on the door and he’s screaming at me.”
Danielle said she called police just as the man started throwing her patio furniture — two chairs, a lounger and a table — off the deck.
“He definitely seemed like he was intoxicated on some kind of substance. I could not understand what he was screaming. He was just very belligerent.”
Police arrived quickly, climbed the fire escape to the patio and put the man in handcuffs, according to Danielle.
VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said Field was taken to jail but released after signing an undertaking agreeing to, among other things, stay away from Danielle and her home, and to appear in court on April 28 to potentially face a charge.
“After transporting him to jail and holding him in jail for a period of time, it was the assessment that our authority to further detain him was limited by the Criminal Code,” said Addison.
“We believed we had compelling evidence that a crime occurred and that the person arrested committed the crime. That’s why we compelled that person to return to court on April 28.”
Addison said VPD investigators filed a charge assessment report to Crown on March 27. He said the VPD’s high-risk offender unit was also brought in, and they contacted B.C. Corrections with the information about Field’s arrest.
“We provided information to Corrections should they choose, at their discretion, to take further action related to the fact that he was on probation,” said Addison.
CBC reached out to B.C. Corrections for comment but did not hear back by deadline.
Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the B.C. Prosecution Service, said the matter was returned by Crown to VPD “…as we were unable to conduct a charge assessment based on the material provided.”
“A request for urgent follow-up was made by the charge assessment Crown,” she said.
Addison said that on April 18, Crown asked VPD for more information about the incident, including transcripts of Danielle’s statement to police and 911 call, photos of the home and for area CCTV video to be gathered.
On June 4, VPD resubmitted its updated report to Crown and the following day Field was charged with trespassing at night.
But by that time he was already in custody for the alleged crime spree of May 28, where police say Field attacked the 14-year-old girl, assaulted another woman and robbed a bank.
He is facing five related charges: sexual assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement, assault, robbery and carrying a concealed weapon.
CBC News has learned that Field was arrested on May 6 for shoplifting from the Lululemon store at Pacific Centre. A charge of theft under $5,000 was sworn on June 11.
CBC News has also learned police were looking for Field in the weeks leading up to the alleged attack on the 14-year-old in relation to two other incidents in downtown Vancouver.
Danielle said the encounter at her home left her so shaken she broke her lease early to move to a different place.
“I started not being able to sleep. I didn’t even really like sitting on my patio anymore. I didn’t like walking around my neighbourhood,” she said. “Even if he didn’t remember my face, I remember him and I just didn’t want to ever run into him again.”
Field’s scheduled bail hearing on June 12 was adjourned to June 26. None of the current charges against him have been tested in court.
According to court records, Field has a long string of convictions dating back to his time as a young offender. In September of last year he was convicted of sexually assaulting a medical technician during a heart test in 2023.
At sentencing, Justice Geoffrey Gomery noted Field had been assessed for a possible dangerous or long-term offender application, but Crown prosecutors elected not to pursue a designation that would have seen him locked up indefinitely.
Field’s sentence was 30 months, but he was given advanced credit for the year and a half he had already spent in custody awaiting trial, meaning he only had three months and a day left to serve.
Gomery also noted that when Field sexually assaulted the medical technician in 2023, he was on parole from an 18-month sentence he received for a similar sexual assault of a different health-care worker in 2018. He was also convicted of sexual assault in 1989.
In 2022, Field was the subject of a Canada-wide warrant when he failed to return to a halfway house after receiving statutory release from the maximum-security Kent Institution in Agassiz, B.C.
At the time, VPD deemed him a “high-risk sex offender” and a significant risk to the public. He was arrested four days later by Surrey RCMP.
