Sexual predator deemed to be dangerous offender
Noel Avadluk will serve indeterminate prison sentence after he was convicted of 2012 sex assault in Yellowknife
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, August 4, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man with two sexual assault convictions and a lengthy history of other violence has been declared a dangerous offender.
Noel Avadluk, centre, is led away from the Yellowknife courthouse after being declared a dangerous offender on Wednesday. Supreme Court judge Karan Shaner sentenced him to a indeterminate prison sentence. She ruled Avadluk is a high risk to re-offend and said the public must be protected. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
In declaring Noel Avadluk, 43, a dangerous offender in Supreme Court on Wednesday, judge Karan Shaner said the risk of Avadluk re-offending is too great to put the public at risk.
Her ruling means Avadluk could be locked up for as long as seven years, pending release on parole, which would be up to the Parole Board of Canada.
His dangerous offender hearing began last winter. It was triggered by Avadluk's latest conviction in 2014 for sexual assault, which took place at the victim's Yellowknife residence in 2012. He's been in custody since he was charged with that offence.
Court heard Avadluk sexually assaulted the victim twice, once in the bathroom and once in the bedroom - both times covering her nose and mouth with his hand.
"The attack was brutal and sustained," said Shaner, noting the victim testified the assault left her depressed, angry and unable to sleep.
Shaner referred to trial testimony from two mental-health experts who deemed Avadluk has a high risk to re-offend.
She also pointed to his lengthy criminal record, including a previous sexual assault conviction in Hay River, when he attacked a woman who was a complete stranger to him.
Court heard the June 2007 assault came in a highrise after Avadluk had followed the woman and forced his way into a room with her.
"He perpetrated violence on four partners on six occasions and has convictions for violence against two others," said Shaner. "They were all alcohol related and showed impulsive behaviour."
Avadluk's lawyer Tracy Bock had called for Avadluk not to be deemed a dangerous offender and had suggested that a three-year period in custody followed by a long-term supervision order as an appropriate sentence.
Court heard Avadluk, who is of Inuit descent, was the youngest of 10 children and grew up in a troubled home in Umingmaktuuq, a small Nunavut community where he had a traumatic upbringing.
Shaner acknowledged Avadluk's youth was marked by poverty, neglect and physical and sexual abuse. She also acknowledged his violent mother would beat him with brooms and hockey sticks and leave him outside in the cold for extended periods of time, adding both Avadluk's parents were residential school survivors.
Avadluk himself went to residential school in Yellowknife for Grade 7 but was eventually expelled. Shaner also noted Avadluk himself was sexually assaulted as a young person at a group home and later by a guard at a correctional facility in Nunavut.
Shaner pointed out he has a history of using alcohol and solvents as early as age 10 and acknowledged it's possible he has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), given his mother's history of alcohol abuse.
Avadluk has 43 criminal offences on his record dating back to 1985. His longest sentence up until now had been one year in jail.
"He has shown a pattern of persistent aggressive behaviour ... and an indifference to the consequences of his actions," said Shaner.
Shaner said she was mindful of Avadluk's circumstances and trauma.
"It is absolutely heartbreaking," she said.
"I really struggled with this decision. The system has failed Mr. Avadluk and consequently his victims."
Avadluk, dressed in a blue T-shirt and sweatpants, was led away by an RCMP officer after the decision.
He was not given an opportunity to address the court.
According to Bock, he will serve his sentence in a federal institution in the south.
