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Man terrorized wife after repeated jail releases

Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 15/06) - A Fort Good Hope man, who terrorized his pregnant wife after being released on bail three separate times, was sentenced to four months behind bars last week.

The man, who has five children with his spouse, was twice re-arrested and released from jail, despite originally breaking an emergency court order that barred him from seeing his wife.

The 39-year-old maintenance man and admitted alcoholic has a long criminal record that includes 11 convictions for assaults, including at least one against his wife.

The case had one women's group questioning how a man could be continually released despite breaching his bail conditions and ignoring court orders.

"It's scary," said Sharon Thomas, executive director of the Status of Women Council. "It could put women in even more trouble."

The man admitted Tuesday in Yellowknife to violating an October court ruling that gave his wife sole use of the five-bedroom family home after she complained of abuse.

That breach came in January when the couple were drinking with friends after reconciling their differences, which nonetheless remained a violation of the court order. During the party, the man also became violent and throttled another woman with a plastic bag in an attempt to take her liquor.

He was arrested, charged and released on $100 bail, along with a promise to appear in court March 1.

Then, on February 12, the woman came home and found her husband passed out on the couch with their infant baby. He was re-arrested and released the following day.

Finally, on March 26 the man barged into the house with a group of drunken friends. The woman was forced to flee the home with her baby.

He was arrested a third time and held in custody until his appearance in a Yellowknife courtroom last week.

Territorial court judge Brian Bruser, who meted out the four-month sentence, had harsh words for the authorities in Fort Good Hope.

"They should have brought him right before a (Justice of the Peace)," Bruser said after hearing about the February incident. "So they let him go and here we go into March."

The case highlights the fact that the territorial government and police are not doing enough to protect women from abuse, said Thomas.

Emergency protection orders, which were introduced last year to provide women with immediate help in cases of violence, are ultimately "only pieces of paper," Thomas said.

"It's one tool, but it's not going to prevent family violence."

She wants to see more money poured into programs that deal with the root causes of abuse.

In court Tuesday, the man - who received a letter of support from his wife - asked for a lenient sentence, a request Bruser rejected.

"Look at the record," said the judge, who called the man a "rat" for hiding in a crawlspace after one of his drunken crimes. "Two pages of vicious behaviour."

"I have been sentencing you for 16 years."

"You're still coming before the court with nasty business."