Court hears from expert on sex offender's upbringing
The judge in charge of deciding whether Corey Bitternose will stay in prison indefinitely heard Monday from an expert on how his aboriginal background played a role in his violent adulthood.
Stuart Cadwallader, president of Kulus Consulting and Development, prepared a Gladue Report for Bitternose’s dangerous offender hearing.
“The purpose of the report in this context was certainly so that the judge had some information about Mr. Bitternose, about his family, about his community, his nation, the impact of colonization on all of those individuals and why Mr. Bitternose may have some issues that have brought him before the court,” Cadwallader said to CBC News outside of the court.
Bitternose, a convicted sex offender, has a criminal history that dates back more than two decades.
Most recently, Bitternose pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual assault involving two women in Banff in 2009.
Cadwallader testified much of Bitternose’s family are residential school survivors and that had a direct impact on his upbringing.
“We look at everything from fetal alcohol (syndrome), and developmental issues, to substance abuse issues... violence, sexual violence, all those sorts of things that a person is raised in,” Cadwallader said. “Certainty, from my perspective, Mr. Bitternose is a very accurate reflection of that background.”
Cadwallader is the last witness to testify in Bitternose's dangerous offender hearing. The process has being going on for more than two years.
Final submissions are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
