No leniency for Derksen’s killer

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This article was published 27/05/2011 (5287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Grant snatched an innocent girl off the street and left her to die while hog-tied in a tiny, freezing shed.

Now the mentally unstable man responsible for one of Winnipeg’s most notorious crimes will likely spend the rest of his days confined to a prison cell.

Grant, 47, was given a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 25 years following a daylong sentencing hearing Thursday. Queen’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal said he was raising parole eligibility from the minimum of 10 years and imposing the maximum sentence allowed by law to reflect Grant’s horrific criminal record and the severity of his crime.

“This was a senseless and unspeakably cruel act. Uncertainty and dread eventually gave way to horror,” said Joyal.

Jurors convicted Grant in February of second-degree murder following a month-long trial. Candace Derksen was grabbed off the street on Nov. 30, 1984, while walking home from school, bound with rope and left to freeze to death inside a brickyard shed. Her body was found in the shed Jan. 17, 1985, after an exhaustive search that included hundreds of volunteers.

“This shocked the city of Winnipeg. A young girl, from a good family, who never made it home from school that day. It was completely random, therefore frightening to society at large,” said Crown attorney Brian Bell.

Jurors spent three days weighing the evidence against Grant, which largely consisted of DNA evidence that finally cracked the case in 2007. Grant is expected to appeal the jury’s verdict, citing alleged errors made by the judge.

Outside court, Cliff and Wilma Derksen said they took no joy in watching their daughter’s killer get sentenced. The deeply spiritual couple called this another step in the grieving process.

“This is just putting another life away, so that’s hard. This doesn’t bring Candace back,” said Wilma. She wished Grant would have said a few words in court, rather than choose to remain silent when given an opportunity by the judge.

“I think that’s probably what’s missing in all of this,” she said. The family is open to eventually meeting with Grant behind bars, if he were willing.

“Forgiveness is an ongoing process,” she said.

Bell provided extensive details about Grant’s past, which includes 23 previous convictions that have already seen him spend more than 20 years behind bars. He has been diagnosed as a high risk to reoffend, especially when he stops taking anti-psychotic medications to treat schizophrenia. Grant also has a disturbing history of violent sexual fantasies, including several he’s acted upon. He told one probation officer. “All women are the same, they deserve to be treated like dirt” while claiming he gets an “extra kick out of watching his victims squirm.”

Three pubic hairs were found on or near Candace’s body, although police have said she wasn’t sexually assaulted. Four scalp hairs that appeared to have been lightly bleached near the roots were on Candace’s clothing. There is evidence Grant had dyed his hair around the same time and his profile couldn’t be excluded. As well, DNA extracted from the twine was found to be a maternal match to Grant.

Grant has also described having hallucinations behind bars that include hearing voices that leave him thinking he is the devil, court was told. Several court-ordered reports have concluded there is “no adequate community supervision that exists to protect citizens,” said Bell.

“Any reasonable member of society would find Grant’s actions sadistic and callous,” he said.

Defence lawyer Saul Simmonds argued parole eligibility should only be raised as high as 14 years. He said Grant suffered a horrendous upbringing that included being abandoned by his mother, sexually, physically and emotionally abused by his father and then molested in a facility CFS sent him to when he was a teenager. He urged Joyal not to lash out at Grant out of a misguided sense of justice.

“If there were true justice, Ms. Derksen would be returned to her family,” said Simmonds. He said Grant functioned well in the community following his latest release from prison in 2004. He spent more than three years in the community without reoffending while embracing programming and treatment.

Simmonds said his client has started exploring his spiritual side, noting a nun who has been working with Grant behind bars was in court Thursday for support.

During the trial, Simmonds attacked the Crown’s case by accusing it of using “bad science” to try to solve the mystery. He said police ignored certain evidence that pointed away from Grant, contaminated the original crime scene and mishandled key exhibits, such as the twine used to tie up Candace. The Crown told jurors their job would be relatively simple if they ignored the “red herrings” being thrown their way. Bell said DNA evidence clearly connects Grant to the slaying, with only a one-in-50-million chance the genetic profile is from someone else. He said there is no reasonable explanation why Grant’s DNA could be at the crime scene if he hadn’t committed the crime.

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