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Calgary
May 10, 2005 10:42:48 GMT -5
Post by Sher on May 10, 2005 10:42:48 GMT -5
CALGARY -- The Crown prosecutor in an animal cruelty case says he will seek the toughest sentence possible should there be a conviction.
John Peters was charged with animal cruelty in February 2004 after a kitten named Dakota suffered injuries, including a broken neck, bruised lungs, head trauma, a broken rib, chest injuries and a broken upper jaw.
The feline also had its bottom lip ripped from its lower jaw.
Peters was in provincial court briefly yesterday but the case was adjourned so Judge Sharon Van De Veen can read written submissions from the Crown and defence.
Crown prosecutor David Chow said he will seek jail time should the accused be found guilty.
"We could potentially get as high as 12 months in jail,'' said Chow.
Court heard earlier testimony from a veterinarian doubting claims by the accused cat beater the cat was run over by a vehicle.
Animal welfare officials will seek a prohibition on animal ownership if Peters is found guilty.
Dakota was seized by the Calgary Humane Society and is now said to be doing well.
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Calgary
Jun 20, 2005 10:37:09 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Jun 20, 2005 10:37:09 GMT -5
CALGARY -- Joseph Cromwell will sit and listen today as the four women he brutally raped describe how he ruined their lives.
The sentencing hearing for Cromwell, who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the women in a case that terrorized city residents for years, begins in provincial court today .
Cromwell recently told the Sun, from inside the Calgary Remand Centre, that he pleaded guilty to spare his victims any more grief.
"This happened when I was going through a bad period in my life," he said.
"I didn't want to track the people through this again."
But Brian Olsen, a retired staff sergeant who was in charge of the sex crimes unit at the time of assaults, believes it was DNA and not Cromwell's conscience that led to the guilty plea.
"The fact is, he was caught and there was DNA, so the evidence was against him," he said, adding he's concerned that because Cromwell, 61, pleaded guilty, the judge may be more lenient towards him in the sentencing.
"I think he should be jailed for the rest of his life," Olsen said.
All four victims, assaulted between 1987 and 1992 while living in an apartment complex, are expected in court today.
Crown prosecutor Les Grieve said he believes the four women - one who was only 13 years old when she was viciously assaulted in 1992 -- will read victim impact statements.
"One victim may ask the judge to lift the publication ban regarding her identity," he added, but wouldn't elaborate on her reasons for doing so.
During an interview in April with the Sun, one of the victims who was attacked by Cromwell in 1989, said she hopes he gets the maximum sentence.
"I'll be in the court that day because it's important for the judge to put a face to a name because it makes more of an impact," she said.
Cromwell, a resident of Bragg Creek, was arrested 13 years after what was believed to be his last assault.
The former military man was on a list of 10 suspects, but DNA samples collected from the scenes connected him to the four assaults.
He was arrested in December.
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Calgary
Jun 21, 2005 10:29:57 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Jun 21, 2005 10:29:57 GMT -5
CALGARY -- Hemlock Crescent rapist Emil Joseph Cromwell sat staring at the floor yesterday as his four victims spoke of the devastation he caused in their lives.
The four women, who had hoped to make eye contact with the man who terrorized their neighbourhood for years, left court disappointed.
Judge Anne Brown heard the frightening details of the victims' ordeals and then statements from each about the impact of Cromwell's crimes.
Crown prosecutor Les Grieve detailed each rape in succession and explained how Cromwell, 61, eluded capture for nearly two decades.
Grieve said the rapes between 1988 and 1992 had become "cold" files until early last year, when sex crimes Det. Lionel Busch was assigned to reopen the investigation.
It was solved when Cromwell voluntarily submitted to provide a DNA sample and the results positively linked him to the four rapes of women in the Spruce Cliff area of southwest Calgary.
Shannon Deneve, who was raped by Cromwell on May 6, 1989, said she wanted to be able to face her attacker when she read her victim impact statement.
"I wanted him to look up, I wanted to meet his eyes."
Deneve, the only victim who asked that her identity not be protected, said rape victims shouldn't feel humiliated by the crimes they have endured.
"I am not the slightest bit ashamed or embarrassed about what happened to me 16 years ago at the hands of this monster," she said.
One of the victims talked of feeling suicidal in the months following the attack on her in July 1989.
"Since the assault, on several occasions, I have had a gun under my bed," she wrote.
Sentencing submissions will be heard on Sept. 9, following the preparation of a psychiatric report.
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Calgary
Jun 22, 2005 14:34:20 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Jun 22, 2005 14:34:20 GMT -5
CALGARY -- A Calgary teen who sadistically raped seven prostitutes will undergo an extensive 60-day assessment.
The Crown is trying to determine if it should pursue having him declared a dangerous offender or a long-term offender.
The defence did not object.
The teen, who is now 18, pleaded guilty last year to sexual assaults and armed robberies that targeted prostitutes.
If he is declared a long-term offender, he would be subject to tight supervision similar to probation for up to 10 years after he has served his sentence.
If he is declared a dangerous offender, he could be jailed indefinitely.
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Calgary
Jun 22, 2005 14:35:07 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Jun 22, 2005 14:35:07 GMT -5
CALGARY -- A Calgarian who injected another man with HIV-tainted blood and carved the word "rat" on his forehead was convicted yesterday of several charges, including aggravated assault, kidnapping and uttering death threats.
It took less than two hours for the jury to deliver their verdict to Travis Douglas Erskine, 24, for his five-hour attack on Darin Davies.
Davies testified that Erskine thought he had gone to police about seeing him help remove homicide victim Jennifer Renn's body from a northwest Calgary motel room.
Defence lawyer Greg Dunn had argued that Davies and another witness, Mark Bitterman, were liars and had framed Erskine.
"I'm relieved. Now we can go on to find and convict Jennifer's murderer," Renn's aunt Zena O'Hare said outside court minutes after the verdict.
O'Hare and Renn's two grandmothers, Hazel Lockhart and Ruth Mowat, believe there have been no charges laid in Renn's death because of witness intimidation.
"If they think Davies ratted, anybody else who gives information might be in for the same treatment as Davies," said O'Hare.
Davies testified that on Feb. 18, 2004, Erskine and two other people held him against his will and took him to a crack house where he was assaulted repeatedly.
That is where the word "rat" was carved into Davies' forehead and he was injected with the blood of Karrie Lynn Aldrich, who was afflicted with HIV.
Aldrich, 34, who faced similar charges as Erskine, died of a drug overdose in January.
Bitterman, 22, has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and unlawful confinement.
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