Yosef Jomo Gopaul appeared in court Monday after being charged with the high-profile murder of Newton mother Julie Paskall. Gopaul was also charged in Ontario after a woman he met briefly at a New Year’s party was attacked in 2009, and a police source said he also faced a string of charges for property offences in Ontario. A man with the same name and date of birth was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in Brampton in 2010.
SURREY – The man accused of killing a Surrey hockey mom has a long criminal past who moved from Ontario to BC to continue his criminal activities.
Yosef Jomo Gopaul, the 27-year-old man charged in Surrey mom Julie Paskall’s murder, made a brief court appearance Monday and was ordered to remain in custody, reported Canadian Press.
Gopaul was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the vicious attack that killed Paskall in late-December.
The deceased had been waiting for her 16-year-old son to finish refereeing a hockey game at the Newton Arena when she was beaten during an apparent botched robbery.
An artist’s rendering of Yosef Jomo Gopaul, 27, who appeared in court Monday, May 26 to answer to charges relating to the murder of Newton mother Julie Paskall. (Handout)
The 53-year-old left behind a husband and three children.
Gopaul moved from Ontario to B.C. just eight weeks before Paskall’s murder. CTV News reported it has learned the accused was known to police back east.
He was charged after a woman he met briefly at a New Year’s party was attacked in 2009, and a police source said Gopaul also faced a string of charges for property offences in Ontario.
“I can confirm that he does have a criminal record. I’m not going to go into any further details beyond that. That criminal record that he does have is not from British Columbia,” said the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team’s Supt. Kevin Hackett on Saturday.
A man with the same name and date of birth was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in Brampton in 2010.
When asked if it was the same Gopaul, Hackett said, “I believe that is the same individual.”
The Parole Board of Canada said that Gopaul finished serving a sentence for aggravated sexual assault last June.
From her home in Ontario, Lynda Lemmon has been following the charges laid in B.C. closely
“I heard his name and my ears perked up,” said Lemmon. “When this family finds out all the things that he has done, they’re going to be furious.”
That is because Gopaul was also slated to be a witness during a trial for a 2008 stabbing in Brampton, according to Lemmon, whose son died in that attack.
She said that during the trial, the court heard Gopaul allegedly lured Luis Estrada-Lemmon from a club to a spot where another man stabbed him.
Gopaul is being held in custody until his next court appearance, set for June 13 at 9.30 a.m.
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