'Something saved my life': One of Richard Mantha's alleged victims details escape, recovery

Just over a year ago, Avery, who was addicted to drugs and working on a sex trade stroll in Calgary's southeast, found herself running for her life across farmers' fields after she says she escaped a brutal attack by a man Calgary police have now charged with drugging and sexually assaulting five women. 

CBC News is calling the woman Avery. Her identity is protected by a publication ban. 

Avery uses a lot of numbers when she talks about her life. 

A 24-year drug addiction. Nine months sober. Three adult kids. Two loving parents thanking God they have their daughter back. 

Then there's the four other women who came forward after Avery told her story to police. 

"Finding out these other women came forward, it was empowering. It made it so that this was no longer trauma for me," says Avery. 

"It made it so that this was a piece of me that I could let go and let the courts and the lawyers and the police and everybody else worry about it."

Avery is 44 years old, but her dad says she reminds him of when she was 13. 

She's bubbly and confident about her future, but to explain how she arrived at this point, she is blunt and honest about her past.

Back in April 2022, Avery was, as she calls it, "a lady of the night."

"I was prostituting myself to support my habit," she says, smoking a cigarette while sitting on a blanket in the cool grass of a northeast park.

Working the Forest Lawn stroll, as it's known, Avery came to know a man called "Poncho."

She says Poncho is the man police have charged in connection with the attack on her and others. His real name is Richard Mantha. 

They had met a few times before and Avery considered them to be acquaintances. She says on April 22, 2022, when Poncho offered to pay her to help do some work at his property, she agreed.