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CALGARY - The Crown has failed to establish a repeat abuser with a sexual interest in young children and animals is a dangerous offender, his lawyer argued Friday.
Defence counsel Mark Gottlieb said the evidence called in Garry Wayne Todd’s dangerous offender hearing hasn’t proven any physical abuse in nearly two decades.
Gottlieb told provincial court Judge Marlene Graham that evidence Todd was “grooming” young children in the interim isn’t enough to declare him dangerous.
He said the evidence establishes the last physical contact Todd had with a young child was in 1992, 15 years before his arrest in March, 2007.
Gottlieb argued Crown prosecutors Jenny Rees and Diane Hollinshead haven’t established Todd presents an ongoing risk to cause physical harm to someone if released.
“The evidence before you fails to prove that such a likelihood exists,” he said.
“There’s an almost 15-year gap from the date of the (last) sexual assault,” the lawyer said.
“What you’ve got is a 15-year period where Mr. Todd ... has not committed a contact offence.”
The prosecution presented evidence Todd was “grooming” two young boys in 2005, or 2006, including one he had sit in his lap while the offender was naked.
To illustrate his sexual deviance, Rees also played for Graham videos Todd made of himself having sex with the family dog and an altered baby doll, and urinating into his own mouth.
Todd, 55, pleaded guilty in May, 2008, to charges of producing child pornography, sexual assault and bestiality involving separate incidents in Calgary and Valleyview, Alta.
Todd, who was sentenced in 1986 and 1989 for sexually assaulting two young children, admitted molesting the daughter of friends of his in Calgary between 1990 and 1992.
The sexual assault investigation was ongoing in Calgary when Todd came to the attention of Valleyview RCMP in March, 2007.
Responding to a complaint by Todd’s son, police executed a search warrant on his home, where they found drawings and writings depicting sexual activity with children.
The hearing resumes Feb. 23.
kevin.martin@sunmedia.ca