Abusive father, husband gets break on sentence

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This article was published 03/02/2023 (1139 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who held his wife and children as virtual hostages during a violent, two-year reign of terror has had his prison sentence reduced by four years.

In a written decision released last week, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled medical evidence not heard at the man’s trial or sentencing that suggests mental illness played a role in his crimes and served to reduce his moral responsibility, justifies a reduction in his 13-year prison sentence.

“I am satisfied that the medical fresh evidence establishes that the accused’s mental illness undermined his capacity to restrain his urges and impulses in how he dealt with his wife and children, and compromised his understanding of the link between the punishment imposed by the court and his crimes,” wrote Justice Karen Simonsen on behalf of the high court.

“The medical fresh evidence establishes that the accused’s mental illness played a role in his criminal conduct and thereby reduced his moral culpability.”

The man cannot be named to protect the identities of his wife and four children.

The man was convicted after trial in 2019 of raping his wife, assaulting and confining his wife and children against their will and threatening to kill them.

“He abused and confined his entire family over the course of two years, essentially torturing them on a nearly daily basis,” Crown attorney Carolyn Reimer said at a sentencing hearing before provincial court Judge Brent Stewart.

“He abused and confined his entire family over the course of two years, essentially torturing them on a nearly daily basis.”–Crown attorney Carolyn Reimer

The man’s wife and three children testified he controlled their every movement and they lived in constant fear he would kill them.

The man’s wife testified on one occasion when she was working in the kitchen, he dragged her to the bedroom, locked the door and ripped off her clothes before raping her. The woman said this was but one of many times he forced sex on her without her consent.

On another occasion, the man waved a machete at the woman’s neck and slashed her hand open when she tried to defend herself. He refused to allow her to seek medical treatment, fearing she might reveal what happened.

The man’s children testified to seeing him attempt to suffocate their mother with a pillow or strangle her with an electrical cord. On other occasions, he covered the woman’s hands and mouth with duct tape.

Family rejected wife’s appeals for help

The family lived in a suite in the same house as the man’s brother and other family members, all of whom had immigrated to Winnipeg from the Middle East.

Court heard the man had become addicted to methamphetamine and believed his wife was cheating on him. He screwed the door to the suite shut, trapping his wife and children inside and set up a security camera so he could monitor their movements.

The man often talked about buying a gun and threatened to shoot his wife if the children didn’t behave. The man’s daughter testified he threatened to shoot her and asked, “How many bullets she would need to take.”

The man’s children reported being beaten “almost every day” and they were kept home from school if they had visible injuries.

When the man’s wife appealed to his family for help, they rejected her, court heard.

Following the man’s arrest, his family, including his elderly mother, assisted him in breaching a no-contact order with the victims and urged the children to lie to court.

Neither the Crown nor defence provided expert medical evidence at trial of the man’s mental state at the time he committed his crimes. It was only at sentencing the man requested — and was denied — an adjournment to secure a new lawyer and provide medical reports and evidence that would support a not criminally responsible defence.

While a not criminally responsible finding was not supported, the fresh medical evidence (including several psychiatric reports, an application for an involuntary psychiatric assessment and a hospital discharge summary completed in the same time period the man was committing his crimes) “describe a history of significant mental disorder,” Simonsen said. “They are relevant to sentencing.”

The man also appealed his conviction, arguing he had ineffective counsel at trial. The appeal was rejected.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca