Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Snowdrift (July 22/02) - A 32-year-old Lutsel K'e man convicted of harassing and threatening a woman has succeeded in knocking seven months off his sentence.

In territorial court in Lutsel K'e on Feb. 6, Judge Michel Bourassa found Fred Rabesca guilty of criminal harassment, assault with a weapon and uttering death threats.

The judge handed down a sentence of 27 months.

Rabesca admitted making repeated harassing phone calls to the woman over a two-week period last December. He repeatedly swore at her and shouted obscenities whenever he saw her.

Then on Dec. 8 the woman visited his home to collect some personal belongings. Rabesca "beat and choked her and dragged her around the house," said Crown prosecutor Shannon Smallwood.

He also grabbed her by the hair and threatened to kill her with a knife.

Rabesca's criminal record includes five prior assault convictions against the same complainant.

At the appeal hearing in NWT Supreme Court last week, defence lawyer Scott Duke argued the initial sentence of 27 months for all three counts plus a three-year probationary term upon release was "excessive and unfit." At the original trial, the Crown indicated it was seeking a total sentence of just 18 months.

Duke argued the one-year sentence imposed by Bourassa for the criminal mischief charge was illegal as the Criminal Code of Canada states the maximum penalty for a criminal harassment summary offence is six months in jail.

Duke also said one of the conditions of the probation order -- banishing Rabesca from Lutsel K'e for three years -- was improper. He said Rabesca has lived in the community his whole life, has a daughter there and an elderly father who needs his assistance.

Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler quashed the one-year sentence for criminal harassment and deemed it illegal.

She imposed a new sentence of five months for that charge.

Schuler also amended the conditions of the probation order, banishing Rabesca from the community of Lutsel K'e for one year instead of three.

She said banishment from the community wasn't "altogether inappropriate," but the length of the banishment as ordered by Bourassa was "excessive."