UPDATE:
A family member said the individual was jumped by four people while he was on his way to get something to eat.
ORIGINAL:
The family of a Skidegate man is looking for answers after he was beaten, stripped naked, tied to a tree, sexually assaulted and left for dead just outside of Prince Rupert last weekend.
A family member said the individual not only nearly died from the injuries he sustained after being taken and beaten by a group of young men on Nov. 22, but was lucky to survive the cold weather after being stripped of his clothing and left in the woods along Hwy 16 where a passerby found him tied naked to a tree.
"He is emotionally and physically beaten. He is hurting internally, he looks completely awful and it breaks my heart. He can't stop crying, he hasn't slept, he's having nightmares, he's ashamed. He's still not sure exactly what happened and why it happened to him," she said.
"This is a man that wouldn't hurt a fly, a man that doesn't have any enemies ... he is a wreck, I hate to see him that way."
The man was overnighting in town with friends on his way to Terrace when he stepped in to help a family member who was being attacked by two men in a Prince Rupert bar. The family member said later in the night the man was assaulted and taken from the hotel by the two young men involved in the incident, individuals who she said had previously uttered threats during a visit to Haida Gwaii.
"This is how we do it in Skidegate, we stick up for somebody whether it is good or bad ... we stick up for family. He did that, like he always does," she said.
"He doesn't understand why he is where he is right now. It has taken everything out of him."
While he survived the attack, the man is "suffering mentally and physically" and wants people in Prince Rupert to know that this type of thing does happen in town.
Insp. Wayne Maughan confirmed the RCMP are investigating a reported assault in the woods, and the family member said she and her family want justice.
"We want to expose these people, we want their names put out there and we want the public to know what they've done and how much harm they have caused ... the family is ripped apart by this and I have never seen the community hurt this bad," she said.
"These two boys are very violent, there are a threat to society and I wish nothing more than to have all of these consequences placed upon them."