Young man to receive adult sentence in violent sexual assault
A young man whose vicious sexual assault left a 62-year-old Edmonton grandmother permanently brain-damaged will be sentenced as an adult.
The man, now 20, was in Edmonton Youth Court Monday as the Crown and defence lawyers presented a joint sentencing submission to the judge.
They suggested the attacker receive a nine-year prison term, with a deduction of nearly three years for time already served.
He will be sentenced Oct. 20. A publication ban remains on his identity until then.
Members of the victim’s family were not in court Monday. However, victim impact statements from her three sons were released to the media.
They show how the family was devastated by the assault, which happened while their father was dying of lung cancer.
“I have never seen my father cry in my entire 40 years of life, not even when and after he was told by his doctor that he will die soon,” one son wrote.
“He was a very strong man, but even a strong man broke down with tears in numerous occasions and was unable to handle [that] such a brutal and sick crime happened to his wife.”
Man drunk, going through drug withdrawal
The woman was attacked in January 2012 after she got off a bus in downtown Edmonton.
The attacker, then 17, beat and sexually assaulted the woman. He left her nearly naked on the frozen sidewalk and ran off with her purse.
He pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault and robbery in November 2012.
The victim spent two months in a coma after the attack. When she regained consciousness, she couldn’t remember what happened. Crown prosecutor Wade Mark said her sons have never told her.
“The physical injury inflicted on her from the crime has not only caused her trouble to walk or perform the normal daily routines that she [was] once good at doing,” another son wrote in his victim impact statement, “but her facial injury or distortion has made me realize there won’t be any normalcy in her/our life again when my 3 ½ -year-old daughter told me that grandma looks scary and doesn’t like to go to her house.”
Mark told the court the young man has a serious substance abuse problem. He has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and has an IQ of 78.
On the day of the attack, he had a fight with his father. He stole the older man’s phone and left the house drunk, angry and going through drug withdrawal symptoms.
Defence lawyer Karen McGowan said her client can’t remember much about the attack because he blacked out twice.
“He was shocked by his own behaviour,” she told court on Monday. “If he could take back what he did that day he would. He's genuinely remorseful."
The young man declined an opportunity to make a statement to the court.
