Seven-year sentence for rape of brain-damaged stranger

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This article was published 09/01/2025 (445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 65-year-old grandfather has been sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a stranger he offered to drive home.

Wesley Chief of Dauphin was convicted of one count of sexual assault following a trial last fall.

Co-accused Holly Meekish, who helped Chief assault the victim, pleaded guilty to the same charge in a separate proceeding and was previously sentenced to 20 months in jail.

Court heard the victim, described as vulnerable and having previously suffered a brain injury, and Meekish, an acquaintance, had been drinking at a home the evening of July 9, 2021, when they left together and started walking along the road.

Chief, who the victim did not know but recognized from the community, drove by the women in a pickup truck and offered them a ride.

“Once inside the vehicle, (Chief) offered (the victim) a white powder narcotic which she voluntarily consumed,” provincial court Judge Geoff Bayly wrote in a decision released this week. “She said that the drug affected her like nothing she had ever taken before.”

Chief drove to an unoccupied home where he and Meekish attacked the victim and forced her into a bedroom. Meekish held the victim’s legs down as Chief sexually assaulted her, telling her “everything will be fine, it will be over in a minute.”

When he was done, Chief tossed the woman a T-shirt to clean herself, told her not to tell anyone and drove her back to the first residence.

The victim did not report the assault to police until five days later, when family members noticed her becoming increasingly withdrawn and depressed.

“I don’t think I can live the same,” the woman wrote in a victim impact statement provided to court. “I am sad and mad … and my family doesn’t want to be around me…. No one understands.”

According to a pre-sentence report prepared for court, Chief, who is Indigenous, was raised in a “chaotic” environment, exposed to regular substance abuse, frequently did not have enough to eat and was not encouraged to attend school.

As an adult, Chief struggled with alcohol, but maintained steady employment, including owning a taxi business.

Support letters provided by family members described Chief as hard-working, caring and a devoted grandfather.

Bayly rejected a defence recommendation Chief be sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, ruling his predatory behaviour created a “significant public-safety concern.”

Chief “has demonstrated that he has the capacity and strength of character to overcome obstacles and adversity in his life,” Bayly said. “Despite this strength, he chose to perpetrate a heinous violent sexual assault on a vulnerable Indigenous woman. His choice now requires a consequence.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca