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Jail time for sexual assault Accused who assaulted sleeping woman had five previous convictions in Fort Good Hope Katherine Hudson Northern News Services Published Monday, February 18, 2013
This is the sixth sexual assault in the community of Fort Good Hope by Stanley Cook. He received a global sentence of almost two-and-a-half years for five sexual assaults on sleeping or passed out victims in 2005. In the most recent assault, Fort Good Hope RCMP responded to a complaint at 7:15 a.m. from a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted at a house party two hours earlier. The victim was tired in the early morning hours and went to sleep in a bedroom at the house, while a number of other people continued to consume alcohol. She told police she thought she was dreaming that someone was touching her. However, she woke up and discovered Cook was assaulting her. She told him to stop and he did and left the room. At 9:30 a.m., Cook, who was intoxicated, was located and held in cells until he was sober. That night he admitted his guilt to RCMP. "This was a crime of opportunity," said Crown prosecutor Jen Bond on Feb. 7 in territorial court in Yellowknife, adding sexual assault on a sleeping or passed our victim is prevalent in the NWT. The Crown suggested three-and-a-half to four years in custody while defence counsel Paul Falvo said that sentence was "excessive." He said Cook was physically and sexually abused in residential school and when he was home, he was in a world of alcoholism - never allowing him to learn how to take care of himself. Falvo said Cook has been proactive in attempting to heal himself through counselling at Yellowknife's Healing Drum Society and the Tree of Peace. Cook also completed a 28-day residential treatment program for alcohol addiction in Hay River since November. He attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and also started an Alcoholics Anonymous group in Fort Good Hope, said Falvo, adding the early guilty plea spared the victim needing to testify at a trial. On Feb. 8, Judge Christine Gagnon sentenced Cook to two years less a day and two years of probation upon his release. She asked for him to serve his sentence at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River where there are aboriginal cultural programs. "Even a single slip in his case is scary," said Gagnon about Cook's night of drinking in Fort Good Hope in August after he had been attempting to live a sober life. "It's absolutely essential that you remain alcohol-free in order to not reoffend." Cook addressed the court before his sentencing and said he prays every morning and leaves his traumatic residential school experiences behind him. "I accept what I've done. If I could give her back her innocence, I would ... I passed on to her what happened to me ... The abuse took my humanity away," he said.
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