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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Judge ignores, tops joint recommendation for rapist's sentence

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 11/21/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

A Manitoba judge has taken the unusual step of rejecting a joint recommendation for a dangerous rapist who randomly attacked a woman outside a Winnipeg shopping mall.

Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin said Friday he can't endorse the seven-year prison term being proposed by Crown and defence lawyers. It included giving Garren Scott double-time credit for 30 months of pretrial custody, plus another two years in a provincial jail.

Instead, Martin said he would only give single credit for time already served, plus an additional five years in a federal prison, for a total of 8 1/2 years.

"Mr. Scott, you have committed a terrible act. You need help so you do not do this again. The public needs to be protected while you get that help," Martin said in a 22-page written decision.

Martin said he believes Scott deliberately stalled his case in the courts to maximize his pretrial custody in an attempt to reduce how much time he actually served behind bars.

"I will not, and ought not, be bound to a rigid arithmetic two-for-one calculation of his time spent in pre-sentencing custody if to do so would compromise public safety by acceding to a joint sentencing recommendation that does not adequately address concerns that exist to this day," said Martin. "This would amount to nothing more than a math game and would bring the administration of justice into disrepute."

Scott, 22, is expected to appeal Martin's decision. The Manitoba Court of Appeal has cautioned lower-court judges to follow joint recommendations unless they can provide compelling reasons not to. Martin noted at least six major factors in his decision, including his lack of treatment and programming and extreme ongoing risk to the public.

"Both the public and Mr. Scott are better served by a penitentiary term," said Martin. "He will have a reasonable opportunity at treatment and, as a result, the community has the best chance of being protected in the long term by Mr. Scott not reoffending."

Scott pleaded guilty to sexual assault for the February 2007 incident outside Portage Place. Crown attorney John Barr told court Scott attacked an 18-year-old woman as she was walking to her parked car. Scott forced the woman inside the vehicle, choked her with a seatbelt strap and violently raped, bit and sodomized her while threatening to kill her.

The victim managed to escape and ran half-naked into the mall for help, court heard. Police linked Scott to the attack by matching his DNA to hair samples they found on a hat he left behind. Scott's DNA was in the national database because of a previous crime in Ontario where he attacked a 73-year-old man.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 21, 2009 A7

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