Federal time for attacker
Sex assault on girlfriend nets over four years jail

by P.J. Harston
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 22/97) - A Yellowknife man convicted last month of beating and raping his girlfriend was sentenced last Friday to four-and-a-half years in jail.

A three-woman, nine-man jury convicted Leslie Firth, 34, in December of assault and sexual assault against his 25-year-old girlfriend, whose taped complaint to police helped convict him.

However, the jurors returned a not guilty verdict on a charge of unlawful confinement.

On Friday during Firth's sentencing hearing Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler heard that the convicted man has 50 previous convictions, a dozen of them violent.

One is a conviction of assault causing bodily harm against a former girlfriend, said Crown lawyer Brad Allison.

During the Supreme Court trial, firth's victim repeatedly denied making a taped statement to police and denied that Firth had committed the crimes police charged him with last July 22.

"Okay, fine. I'll tell you a little bit," her taped voice said during the trial. "I got raped all night. I got beat all night. I got slapped all night."

That contrasted sharply with what the woman said during the trial.

"What I want is for this to be thrown out of court," the victim told Crown lawyer Brad Allison. "I want my life back, I want Leslie back home, I want my family back together."

In Allison's closing arguments to the jury, he said the victim's denial was an understandable "survival technique."

Firth has been in custody since July 22.