Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., man gets 16 months for repeatedly contacting witness in kidnapping case

CBC
·1 min read
The courthouse in Yellowknife. (Robert Holden/ CBC - image credit)
The courthouse in Yellowknife. (Robert Holden/ CBC - image credit)

A Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., man has been given a 16-month sentence for breaking a no-contact order with a witness and attempting to manipulate her into accepting an alternative version of events.

Kelly Ovayuak, 47, was also given 18 months probation, and ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with the woman, who he's also accused of kidnapping and assaulting in 2022.

The court heard on Monday how after being charged in 2022, Ovayuak made at least 90 phone calls to the alleged victim.

Ovayuak is accused of breaking into an Inuvik, N.W.T., home in April 2022 and assaulting a man, wounding or endangering the life of a woman, kidnapping the same woman, failing to stop for police, mischief, impaired driving and two breaches of the probation orders he was under at the time.

Ovayuak's trial for those charges begins April 15.

At Ovayuak's sentencing in N.W.T. Territorial Court on Monday, Judge Stephanie Whitecloud-Brass described his childhood as "complicated, challenging, and heartbreaking." She described Ovayuak as being a family patriarch, thrust into helping raise his younger siblings while surrounded by addiction and abuse.

The judge wished him luck in moving forward with his life, and encouraged him to be an example with his Inuvialuit heritage.

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