'Agent Layla': Sex assault victim turned secret agent brings her abuser to justice
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victim → turn → justice
Vienna Luke became an undercover RCMP operative to get a confession in a historic sexual assault
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
On a Friday morning in 2021, just a couple of days before Halloween, Vienna Luke zipped up an oversized puffer jacket with a big hood, and put on sunglasses to hide her face.
In a SUV outside her home, plainclothes RCMP officers waited to whisk her away on a secret mission — a face-to-face meeting with the man responsible for the worst night of her life.
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officers → become → life
Luke, a fitness instructor and mother of two children, was the key undercover agent in an RCMP operation that — if successful — could lead to the rarest of outcomes: a criminal conviction in a sexual assault that that had occurred 14 years earlier.
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that → lead → assault
If Luke failed, her case and the truth about what had happened that night would almost surely be lost to time.
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what → fail → time
The police referred to Luke using a code name: Agent Layla.
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police → refer → name
CBC has obtained the surreptitious recording of that mission.
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CBC → obtain → mission
It shows an extremely rare instance of RCMP turning the victim into an agent in her own case.
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RCMP → show → case
The RCMP sergeant who led the investigation say it’s an approach that is almost never tried — especially in sexual assault cases.
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that → lead → cases
"For the victim to have the strength, and the investigative team [to have the] determination[...] is almost unheard of," said Sgt. Joëlle LaChance.
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LaChance → have → determination
Facing the man who assaulted her, her estranged brother-in-law, "Agent Layla" presses him for answers over the course of 70 minutes.
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brother → face → minutes
Luke ultimately elicits a confession that surpassed even the highest hopes of the RCMP team gathered in a nearby hotel room listening in over a wire.
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that → elicit → wire
The breakthrough was so moving that it brought tears to a hardened undercover officer accustomed to working with drug dealers and murderers.
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it → bring → dealers
"She literally took her life back in her hands," said one of the officers from the undercover unit, working with LaChance.
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one → take → LaChance
"There wasn’t a dry eye in that room," said LaChance.
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LaChance → be → room
That recording — along with interviews from Luke, her middle sister Shawnessy Luke, and the police officers involved in the sting — is part of a new four-part CBC podcast called Personally: Agent Layla.
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recording → involve → podcast
The podcast details how Luke managed to get the truth, put the man who assaulted her behind bars, and begin to heal from an incident that left her traumatized, detached from her own body, and at odds with members of her family who at times failed to take her side.
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who → detail → side
At 20 years old, Luke was living at home with her family in the Vancouver suburbs after attending a Bible school overseas.
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Luke → live → school
Her life had been sheltered; she says she had never been kissed, or even held hands with a man.
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she → shelter → man
While she contemplated her future, she decided to move in with her eldest sister, brother-in-law and their sons in the small B.C. town of Fort St. John — a 14-hour drive north from where she was raised.
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she → contemplate → John
Sewell was 11 years older than her and he had been a trusted member of the family since Luke was a child.
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Luke → trust → family
During a week when Luke's sister and nephews were out of town, Sewell proposed a plan.
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Sewell → propose → plan
He suggested she get drunk for the first time at home with him, in what he described as a "safe place."
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he → suggest → place
Luke says she had heard of another Christian girl who had done something similar to experiment for the first time with drinking, so she went along with his idea.
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she → say → idea
WARNING: This story contains graphic details about sexual abuse.
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story → contain → abuse
According to testimony presented in court and extensive interviews conducted by the CBC, Luke only sipped the cocktails he made — one of them a Kahlua-based "Brown Cow."
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one → accord → them
As she and Sewell danced to country music in the living room, Luke remembers her legs buckling.
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legs → dance → room
As the world went black, she felt nauseous and thought to herself that drinking alcohol didn’t seem so fun after all.
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drinking → go → alcohol
Aloud, she spoke a phrase that only drives home how naive she was to what was about to happen.
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she → speak → what
"I just love Jesus," she said.
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she → love → Jesus
"I just love Jesus.
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I → love → Jesus
For Luke, everything about the rest of that night is blank, except for one memory that would both torment her and propel her to seek accountability in the almost two decades to come: a brief moment when she says she awoke mostly naked in her bed.
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she → torment → bed
"I was looking at myself, from above, to my brother-in-law taking off my underwear," she said.
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she → look → underwear
'We gotta tell mom and dad'
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We → got → mom
In the aftermath of that horrible evening, Luke says she tried to "shelve" what happened.
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what → say → evening
For months, she fought what she described as a war between her body that remembered, and her brain trying to forget.
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that → fight → body
She moved back home to her parents’ home near Vancouver and didn’t come face-to-face with Sewell again until half-a-year later at Christmas when the entire family went to Florida for a cruise.
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family → move → cruise
But when they said their goodbyes at the airport, her middle sister, Shawnessy Luke, noticed something was off.
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something → say → airport
"I remember it like it was yesterday," Shawnessy Luke said.
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Luke → remember → it
"The way he hugged her.
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he → hug → her
And I think that’s strange.
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that → think → ?
…and 94 more, not listed.
The Aporia
