Kelowna man sentenced to 4 years for multiple assaults against girlfriend

Photo: File photo

A Kelowna man was taken into custody Wednesday morning after he was sentenced to a four-year jail sentence for assaulting his girlfriend multiple times in 2022.

While the man's defence counsel had sought a conditional sentence order that would have seen him serve his sentence in the community under house arrest conditions, Judge Lisa Wyatt said she had “no hesitation” sentencing him to a proper jail term given the circumstances of his offences.

Any information that could identify the victim is protected under a publication ban, so Castanet will not be naming the convicted man, instead referring to him as CM and the victim as AP.

Following two days of trial last May, Judge Wyatt convicted CM of one count of sexual assault, three counts of assault causing bodily harm, one count of assault by choking, and one count of simple assault.

CM and AP dated between February and July of 2022, after they had met while working at a Kelowna store where CM was AP's supervisor.

'Persistent, repetitious and escalating'

AP said CM would assault her roughly four to five times per week. Judge Wyatt had previously noted that CM is “much larger” than AP.

“All of the offences involved intimate partner violence and all of them took place in the victim's home,” Judge Wyatt said during sentencing Wednesday.

“The violence began early on in the relationship, starting with arguments and then escalating to situations where the offender would grab the victim's shirt or bra and rip them off, to where he would grab her face at the jaw. He then progressed to slapping her or throwing her to the ground and those incidents form the basis of a number of the offences.”

The sexual assault conviction stemmed from an incident where CM, who was 33 at the time, forced AP's legs apart and digitally penetrated her after she said she didn't want to have sex with him. He told her that what he was doing couldn't be assault, because she was his girlfriend.

Another time, CM hit AP in the face, leaving her unable to speak properly for several days. CM would not let her see a doctor, despite her telling him that she wouldn't tell the doctor what really happened.

“The offences involved persistent, repetitious and escalating violence over a number of months, culminating in a sexual assault,” Judge Wyatt said.

“The offender demeaned the victim, treated her like his property when he suggested his actions did not constitute assault because she was his girlfriend and prevented her from getting medical treatment.”

Diagnosed with PTSD

In a victim impact statement, AP spoke about how she was suicidal following her relationship with CM and was hospitalized for two weeks as a result, where she was diagnosed with PTSD.

Judge Wyatt noted that while CM said he was drinking to excess back in 2022, he has no history of mental health or substance abuse issues.

“He does not come before the court with an underlying mental health diagnosis or personal circumstances that would attenuate his moral blameworthiness,” Judge Wyatt said. “He had a good childhood and he has a good work history and supportive parents. There's apparently no underlying explanation for his serious criminal behaviour.”

CM was placed on two peace bonds in 2017 in connection to another woman he had been in a relationship with and he was convicted in 2018 for breaching those conditions.

Additionally, after he was charged with the assaults against AP, he breached his no-contact order with her and has since been convicted for further acts of violence against her. He's set to be sentenced for these further assaults next week.

While Judge Wyatt said the seven convictions should lead to a total sentence of six years, when taking in the sentencing principle of “totality,” she reduced the sentence to four years. The legislated sentencing principle says a sentence “should not be unduly long or harsh.”

The sentence comes a week after another local man, James Rektor, was convicted of abusing his wife over several years. Rektor has yet to be sentenced.

In delivering her sentence Wednesday, Judge Wyatt quoted a previous court decision about violence against an intimate partner.

"Domestic abuse, as intimate partner violence is also known, imperils society as a whole ... it is conduct that tears at the very fabric of our society."