‘Feral butchery’: Scottish judge sentences man to life for killing Alberta girlfriend

Claire Leveque was a young Alberta woman who had travelled to Scotland with a boyfriend when she was brutally stabbed and drowned by the man in an act of “feral butchery,” a judge said Wednesday.

Leveque left her rural hometown north of Edmonton in the fall of 2023 to live with Aren Pearson and his mother in Sandness, a village in the remote Shetland Islands of Scotland.

“In the words of your late mother … she was ‘just a lovely young girl,’” Judge Paul Arthurson of the High Court in Edinburgh said in a transcript posted on the court’s website.

The judge also said Leveque was vulnerable and isolated, with no work permit and no driver’s licence in a foreign country. The 24-year-old was killed in February 2024.

A jury found 41-year-old Pearson guilty of murder Wednesday. It heard Pearson stabbed Leveque at least 26 times in a hot tub and held her head under the water to “make sure” he had killed her.

The judge sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

“Ms. Leveque died a squalid death of quite unimaginable multi‑faceted violence, including in particular severe and frenzied instrumental violence, all at your hands,” Arthurson said.

“This was a sustained episode of feral butchery.”

Court heard police were called to the home by Pearson’s mother, who had found the victim in the hot tub, moaning and groaning. Her face was smashed up, with her right cheek looking like it was ripped, the judge said.

Pearson took the phone as the mother spoke with the emergency operator.

“I’ve just killed my girlfriend in the hot tub in the garage at Ringville,” he said.

“I stabbed her about 40 times, in the heart, chest, face, neck and back … I definitely killed her. To make sure, I drowned her after I stabbed her.”

Responding officers found Pearson in the tub with the woman’s body. A video taken by Pearson and played for the court showed Leveque lifeless in the tub and Pearson shouting at officers.

An autopsy identified 55 distinct injuries, including at least 26 defined stab wounds. There was also bruising on her neck suggesting she was strangled.

The judge said Pearson had a “sinister pattern” of abusing the girlfriend from the moment she arrived in Scotland. He sought to belittle the victim, Arthurson said.

In a statement, Scotland police Insp. Richard Baird said Pearson was “cruel and selfish.”

“Today’s verdict cannot change what happened, but I hope it brings a degree of closure to Claire’s family,” he said.

The judge acknowledged the woman’s family for their restraint and impeccable behaviour in court.

“One cannot imagine how her father has found the courage to do so, each day reliving the trauma of his daughter’s violent death so vividly in this courtroom,” Arthurson said.

The victim’s father, Clint Leveque, lives in Manitoba. Lauren Proteau, a domestic violence advocate in Winnipeg and a friend of Leveque’s father, said the Teulon resident had mixed emotions after the verdict and sentencing, which he attended.

“Clint is composed and, obviously, happy with the outcome, but it will never bring his daughter back,” Proteau told the Free Press after speaking to him.

“That pain will be pain he feels forever.”

Proteau said the trial’s outcome was a “long-fought victory” for Claire Leveque’s family and friends, although bittersweet.

She said Leveque’s father intends to share his daughter’s story and advocate for change to help prevent intimate partner violence and support survivors.

Proteau said a number of failures occurred before Leveque’s death. Alberta court records show past charges against Pearson — including pointing a firearm, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats — were dismissed or withdrawn.

“There were so many opportunities for this monster to be caught in Canada prior to this event,” Proteau said.

“His record of court charges is extensive and inclusive of serious domestic violence events. One can only imagine the life Claire could have lived if he had been previously convicted.”

— The Canadian Press, with files from Chris Kitching