Impact statement brings Crown attorney to tears

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This article was published 29/03/2010 (5644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — A Crown attorney wiped away tears Monday while reading a victim impact statement on behalf of a woman who was brutally raped by her ex-boyfriend.

The 46-year-old Beausejour man pleaded guilty to several charges as part of a plea-bargain that will see him receive three years in prison in addition to 18 months of time already served. His name isn’t being published to protect the identity of the victim.

The woman – who wasn’t present in court for the sentencing hearing – described her physical and emotional injuries as a result of the September 2008 attack. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ritchot had to pause several times to collect herself as she read the woman’s emotional words aloud in court.

“I trusted you. Cared for you. Only wanted the best for you. Why, why, why?” she said. "Emotionally I felt dirty, used, guilty that somehow I allowed it to happen, and very degraded. I feel like my soul has been robbed."

The accused began dating the victim after they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 2007, court was told. The ended their romance in July 2008 but continued to be friends. However, everything changed that fall when the man fell off the wagon and began drinking heavily. The woman went to his house one day, concerned for his well-being, and was viciously attacked.

“I wanted to help him. I felt sorry for him. Then it became a nightmare,” she wrote.

The man put duct tape over her face, bound her hands and legs together and then sodomized her. He also demanded she call her 18-year-old daughter to come over so he could rape her as well in front of her mother. She was repeatedly beaten when she refused and threatened with a lead pipe.

“No mother should ever be put in that position,” Ritchot told court. “He had no regard for the feelings or personal integrity of the victim.”

The man eventually untied his victim and allowed her to escape the house.

“I no longer had any personal control. I was at his mercy. I looked into his eyes and could see nothing,” she wrote in her victim impact statement. The woman said she resumed drinking following the attack and had to quit her job.

The accused has a previous criminal history, including a similar sexually-motivated attack on his former wife in 2004. He also met her at an AA meeting, court was told.

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