WINNIPEG -- Garron Scott hung his head in his hands as a judge refused to accept -- at least for now -- a recommended seven-year prison sentence for a violent sexual assault outside a downtown shopping mall.
"It's very hard for me to imagine a more serious sexual assault," said Justice Chris Martin, noting the maximum sentence for the offence is 10 years in prison.
The sentence recommended by the Crown and defence would give Scott double credit of five years for time already served and require him to serve just two more years in custody, followed by three years supervised probation.
Crown attorney John Barr said the recommended sentence would keep Scott under supervision until 2014. He said Martin would have to sentence Scott to five years in prison to achieve the same effect but that would mean not giving him double credit for time served. The sentence would also not include any probationary supervision in the community.
Court heard Scott, then 20, attacked the 18-year-old victim as she was getting into her car outside Portage Place mall on Feb. 21, 2007. Scott forced the woman into the car, choked her with a seatbelt strap and threatened to kill her before violently raping her, Barr said.
The woman scrambled free and ran half-naked into the shopping mall for help, Barr said.
Police arrested Scott after matching his DNA to hair samples found in a hat he left in the car.
Scott's DNA was filed with the national DNA bank after he was convicted of carjacking a 73-year-old man in Ontario. Scott threatened to kill the man and strangled him with a seatbelt strap before driving off in his car.
According to a sex offender progress report filed in court, Scott told a counsellor he raped the victim because he "just want(ed) to get laid" and "didn't think I would get caught."
Defence lawyer Darren Sawchuk said his client is still coming to grips with his own sexual abuse at the age of 12.
Martin adjourned the case to Oct. 7 to hear further submissions in support of the recommended sentence.
dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca
