Teen’s ‘outrageous, horrendous’ sex attacks require adult sentence: judge

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This article was published 19/12/2016 (3226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg teen will be sentenced as an adult for his role in “outrageous and horrendous” attacks on unsuspecting women, a Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled Monday.

Judge Gerald Chartier decided the youth criminal justice system won’t go far enough to hold the now-19-year-old man accountable for two counts of aggravated sexual assault he committed when he was 17, despite the fact he is on the fetal-alcohol spectrum and has intellectual disabilities.

“These offences are serious and violent and I am considering the interests of society,” Chartier said.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum in-custody sentence would have been three years — which he has already served, based on the court’s usual time-and-a-half credit. As an adult, he’ll face a lengthy prison sentence.

The teen will be sentenced at a later date. His co-accused, Justin Hudson, now 22, is also awaiting sentencing for the same crimes. The Crown is seeking a life sentence for Hudson; his defence lawyer has suggested a sentence of between 12 and 14 years would be more appropriate.

As the teen sat hunched in the prisoner’s box Monday, at one point taking off his glasses and holding his head in his hands, the judge said while he took the fetal-alcohol syndrome aspect into consideration, he didn’t believe the teen’s impulse control was severely impacted when the crimes were committed.

The teen, along with Hudson, admitted to planning to break into cars to celebrate the teen’s 17th birthday. Then, in separate attacks within hours of each other on Nov. 8, 2014, they chose victims at random and raped and robbed them, leaving one for dead in the Assiniboine River.

The teen admitted to pinning down the first victim near the river while the older man raped her. He then stole her running shoes, jacket and iPod, later using the device to photograph himself wearing the victim’s clothes. The photo was automatically uploaded to the victim’s iCloud account, which can be accessed from different devices. She discovered the photo of one of her attackers while she was recovering in hospital.

In a victim impact statement filed in court, the then-16-year-old girl wrote about how the discovery affected her.

“After beating me with weapons, you left my body, naked and nearly dead. You stole my jacket and shoes and took my iPod. And then you posted a picture on Facebook of yourself wearing my clothes. When I saw that later, I was sickened that you felt so little remorse and instead bragged about what you had just done,” she wrote.

The fact that he cleaned the blood from the stolen running shoes before wearing them “indicates a certain level of functioning and problem-solving” well above a young child’s capabilities, Chartier said in his decision. While the judge accepted the teen’s deficits mean he’s easily influenced by others, he noted the youth’s prior refusal to join a gang as an example of his independent thinking and emphasized he was sober when he attacked the women.

A forensic report filed in court shows the accused has been diagnosed with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder — which falls under the umbrella of fetal-alcohol syndrome — as well as post-traumatic stress, depression and a learning disability. His IQ has been assessed as being within an “extremely low” range, the report notes.

The teen has been assessed as having internal anger for his own unresolved childhood sexual abuse, court heard. The report shows he was sexually abused by an uncle several times, starting when he was eight years old and continuing until he was 12.

Court heard he claimed he “felt shitty” for what he did to the first victim that night, and took it out on the second victim, a 23-year-old woman. He had no prior criminal record, but he did admit to breaking into cars to fuel his alcohol abuse.

The report notes the teen “appears to be experiencing genuine feelings of guilt and remorse.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay