In Calgary courts: Serial rape suspect Richard Mantha was a massive hoarder, his former landlord tells court
Serial rape suspect Richard Robert Mantha left behind thousands of kilograms of garbage on the rental property east of Calgary where he allegedly assaulted several women, his former landlord testified Tuesday.
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'Probably the worst hoarder that I've ever met in my life,' Paul Lock told Mantha's Calgary Court of Justice trial, which resumed after a months-long delay.
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Crown prosecutor Dominique Mathurin took Lock through a series of photographs taken at his Vale View Road acreage following Mantha's April 2023 arrest.
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'This photo doesn't give justice to the amount of stuff that was pulled out of there because my property looked like a landfill,' Lock testified.
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Lock said he rented Mantha a Quonset on his property and in an 18-month period he stuffed it with everything from children's clothing and toys, to dead animals, to human feces, to a 'trashed' fifth-wheel motorhome.
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'I did see this (prior to Mantha's arrest) and I thought 'oh my God,'' Lock said.
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'He considered himself the highway hobo so if it wasn't bolted down he took it home.'
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Mantha, 60, faces 20 charges involving allegations he sexually abused seven women, allegedly drugging six of them. He also faces a charge of kidnapping one of the women.
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Lock said after an 'army' of police officers raided his property over the Easter long weekend in 2023, he was left to clean up the mess his former tenant left behind.
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He said, '37,426 pounds (nearly 17,000 kilograms) of garbage was removed off that property.'
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'That's what went through the scales at the dump.'
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That amount didn't include recyclable materials, such as metals, which were also taken away.
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'After Richard was arrested the $33,000 cleanup began,' Lock said.
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He said when Mantha first rented the building it was empty and a stipulation was that it be used only for work purposes, not a residence.
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