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Man attacked disabled woman
Andrew Livingstone Northern News Services Published Monday, April 20, 2009
Kenneth Peter MacWatt, 45, pleaded guilty to assault on Heidi Janz, 42, an Edmonton playwright who has cerebral palsy. Crown prosecutors are trying to have him declared a long-term dangerous offender. MacWatt admitted to break and enter with intent to commit robbery, possession of a dangerous weapon and wearing a disguise during the Jan. 28 incident. Janz was alone in her bedroom when she heard a noise in her living room and went to investigate. She found MacWatt in her apartment wearing a dark blue balaclava and ski gloves, wielding a pocketknife with an eight-centimetre blade. She tried to scream but MacWatt covered her mouth. In a frantic attempt to escape, she fell from her motorized wheelchair and sustained a dislocated shoulder. MacWatt stabbed her three times in the shoulder and choked her before she fainted. Alberta Provincial Court Judge Ferne LeReverend ordered a psychiatric evaluation on the repeat offender, who has 38 convictions on his record, including multiple break and enters and two sexual assaults. He has been convicted on numerous charges in Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik, Yellowknife and Edmonton. The evaluation will determine whether or not to pursue long-term or dangerous offender status. If designated a dangerous offender, MacWatt will be locked up indefinitely. Long-term offenders are placed on supervision in the community for up to 10 years following their release from prison. Convicted of his first sexual assault in Aklavik in 1992, MacWatt is most known in the NWT for his sexual assault on a 61-year-old Inuvik woman for which he received a sentence of seven years in 2000. The deaf, mute woman was found lying in the hallway of her apartment, naked and bloody from the waist down, having sustained a broken wrist, black eye and serious vaginal tearing. He is scheduled to appear in Alberta Provincial Court again on June 11.
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