Crown seeks 20 years for teen accused of brutal sex assaults

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This article was published 22/02/2017 (3161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg teen who brutally attacked two women, leaving one for dead in the freezing Assiniboine River, told a judge he knows how they feel because he was sexually abused as a child.

The Crown is seeking a 20-year prison sentence for the now-19-year-old man, who was 17 when he and a 20-year-old man chose their unsuspecting victims at random while walking down city streets and raped and robbed them within hours of each other on Nov 8, 2014.

“The facts themselves are utterly horrific. What happened to (the two victims, whose names are protected by a publication ban) are things that should only have been born in the minds of the most twisted entertainment writers,” Crown attorney Jennifer Comack told court Wednesday during the teen’s sentencing hearing.

The accused’s defence team is asking Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Gerald Chartier to sentence their client to a total sentence of seven years, arguing 10 years in prison for each count of aggravated sexual assault he’s admitted wouldn’t take into account his cognitive difficulties and would have “the opposite impact” on public safety by surrounding him with other offenders for two decades until he’s ultimately released.

“We’re dealing with someone who is very vulnerable. Even when he’s been in the Manitoba Youth Centre, he’s had problems. To sentence (my client) to that long in jail is going to put him in a very dangerous situation,” defence lawyer Steven Keesic said.

The teen told the judge he deals with daily threats in custody and fears for his family’s safety because of what he’s done, in addition to suffering nightmares brought on by his own memories.

“I’m really sorry for what I did that night because the way my victims feel — I should have never did that because they’re going to have to live with it for the rest of their lives. Same with me, but it’s going to be more hard on them than me,” he said Wednesday.

“It’s hard on me, and I know it’s more hard on the victims. I know what they went through. I went through this for five years and it was by my own uncle,” he said of his past sexual abuse, before breaking down in sobs while in the prisoner’s box.

The judge has reserved his decision. Chartier decided late last year to sentence the teen as an adult, saying the youth criminal justice system won’t go far enough to hold him accountable.

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.

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. Hudson is set to be sentenced May 1.

The teen, along with Hudson, admitted to planning to break into cars to celebrate the teen’s 17th birthday. Then, in separate attacks, they raped and robbed two young women: a 16-year-old and a 23-year-old. The 16-year-old was tossed into the freezing river and the 23-year-old was confined for hours while the two accused repeatedly raped her, eventually letting her go.

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.

A forensic report filed in court showed 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 Crown has argued the teen’s impulse control is unaffected by his conditions and shouldn’t result in a lower sentence, but his defence team disagrees.

The teen has been assessed as having internal anger for his own unresolved childhood sexual abuse. 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 previously 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.”