 |
WINNIPEG -- He beat one man to death with a baseball bat, choked two of his sisters to the point of unconsciousness and assaulted his uncle, breaking his nose.
Now justice officials want a judge to designate Darryl Cook a dangerous offender, a move that could keep Cook behind bars for the rest of his days if he doesn't mend his violent ways.
Cook, 42, was in court yesterday for the first day of a month-long dangerous offender hearing.
Cook was sentenced in 1998 to seven years in prison for manslaughter for the beating death of 29-year-old Nicodemus Boucher. Cook and two co-accused beat Boucher to death after he was involved in a verbal dispute with a group of youths on Beverley Street. Cook beat Boucher with a baseball bat.
Cook served every day of his prison sentence before he was released from custody in February 2005. Just six weeks later, while visiting his sister's house, Cook became angry and attacked two of his sisters, choking them until they were unconscious. Two weeks after that, while visiting his father in Portage la Prairie, Cook beat his uncle unconscious and broke his nose.
Cook was sentenced to five years in prison for the attacks on his sisters. He has yet to be sentenced for the assault on his uncle, which is the subject of the dangerous offender hearing.
If designated a dangerous offender, Cook could be held in prison indefinitely, until such time corrections officials are satisfied he doesn't pose a risk to the community.
Yesterday, Cook's former stepdaughter told court of the years of terror she endured while living with Cook as a child.
"We were always afraid of Darryl," said the now 24-year-old woman. "We had to watch what we said or how we played because he got upset so easily. I saw my mom get beaten up a lot."
Cook was charged with assault after he backhanded the then-five-year-old girl's head into a kitchen table, bloodying her face.
On another occasion, the girl leaped onto her mother's lap, hoping to save her from a beating but it didn't work.
"He punched her in the head and knocked a tooth out," the woman said.
The woman said she and her four siblings were made permanent wards of Child and Family Services when she was seven, a move she blames on Cook.
"It was a hard life," she said. "Some of the experience made me stronger, but it was horrible. I think if we weren't taken away it would have been different. I lost all those years of knowing my mom."
The hearing resumes Monday.
dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca