Man accused of sexually assaulting girl claims innocence, wife says

By: THE CANADIAN PRESS

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. - The wife of a man charged with abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl says her husband claims he was carjacked the night the girl was snatched off the street.

Natalie Tippett says her husband called her before his arrest to say he'd been held at gunpoint early Wednesday and that he didn't know where he was.

The 35-year-old woman, who has been married to Tippett for 12 years, says he told her he was in the hospital getting a blood transfusion the night the girl was assaulted.

Stanley Tippett, 32, has yet to appear in Peterborough court.

He was arrested in a vehicle between Oshawa and Peterborough at about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The 12-year-old girl was found by police after residents reported hearing screams behind a high school just east of Oshawa.

She was supposed to spend the night at her grandmother's after attending a birthday party with friends in Peterborough.

The girl left the house in the company of two teens and somehow ended up inside a red van that the trio encountered down the street - a van police would later pursue as it fled the area where the victim was discovered.