RCMP have issued a Canada-wide warrant for a man linked to four assaults on Island women, including one Friday in Qualicum Beach.

“We have a suspect who was preying on vulnerable women,” Island district RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Lagan said Saturday. “As long as he’s at large, he does pose a risk to the public.”

Shaun Richard Funk, 35, is wanted on two counts of sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and break and enter.

He’s considered the main suspect in sexual assaults in Ladysmith and Squamish, and a possible suspect in three other Island assaults, including the Qualicum Beach incident.

Friday just before 1 a.m., a 78-year-old woman awoke to find a man in the bedroom of her Qualicum Beach home. Police said she was physically assaulted but not injured.

She told police her attacker was a white male, aged 18 to 28, about five-foot-eight and 170 pounds. He was wearing a dark jacket with a maroon-coloured tuque.

In the Squamish incident Aug. 28, a 39-year-old woman was sleeping in her car when a man forced his way in and sexually assaulted her. She was held for four hours until her attacker drove her car to Burnaby, sexually assaulted her a second time and then fled.

Less than a month later in Ladysmith, a woman in her 50s awoke at 3:30 a.m. to find a man in her bedroom who physically and sexually assaulted her.

Police originally reported that the Sept. 26 assault was linked to a home invasion in Ladysmith an hour and a half earlier. The woman woke up to find a man standing in her bedroom and had what police described as “a brief interaction” with the man before he fled.

A team of more than a dozen investigators was able to link the Squamish and Ladysmith sexual assaults and pinpoint Funk as the prime suspect.

Lagan said Funk is a “possible suspect” in the Ladysmith home invasion and Qualicum Beach attack, as well as an assault in Duncan July 4. In that incident, a man broke into a home and sexually assaulted the woman inside. He ran away when a child interrupted the assault.

“There are some obvious similarities, which is why we are definitely considering him as a suspect,” Lagan said, adding that Funk may eventually face additional charges.

Funk is described as Caucasian with brown hair and brown eyes, about five-foot-eight to five-10 inches tall and about 150 pounds with a slim build.

He has tribal-art tattoos on his upper right arm and a noticeable mole on the right side of his chin.

Funk is originally from Manitoba but is a drifter with no known residence in B.C., Lagan said. RCMP said he has a known crack addiction and a habit of running up tabs at bars and restaurants, then trying to leave without paying.

Lagan said people should keep their doors and windows locked. The women’s doors were unlocked in three of the four attacks on the Island, he said.

Police ask anyone who sees Funk to call 9-1-1.

— with files from Canwest News Service

kderosa@tc.canwest.com