Police warn of violent sex offender
Court transcript outlines history of violent behaviour
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, August 28, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
RCMP issued a warning yesterday about a man considered to be a "violent sexual offender" who is in the city.
Police have warned the public that Jonah Keyuajuk has a history of violent behaviour. He has been released to live in the city. - photo courtesy of RCMP |
Jonah Keyuajuk, 44, originally from Pangnirtung, has convictions of aggravated sexual assault, assault with a weapon, assault and causing bodily harm. A police statement says Keyuajuk "poses a risk of significant harm to the public."
According to the transcript of a hearing from August 2007, NWT Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau sentenced Keyuajuk to three years and 11 months in prison after he had pleaded guilty to three vicious assaults. That transcript outlines a history of violence.
He spent short stints in jail in the early 1990s, including one for a sexual assault. In 1997, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for an aggravated sexual assault. While in prison he committed an another assault, according to the transcript. He was also convicted of an assault in 2005. Just months after he was released in April 2006 came more offences.
The first was an assault causing bodily harm to his common-law spouse on June 13, 2006.
He pleaded guilty to punching his spouse several times in the head, causing her to go unconscious and had threatened to kill her.
He fled, a warrant was issued for his arrest but he was missing for months. He was picked up but then released. Ten days later on Nov. 23, 2006, the other two crimes were committed. He repeatedly punched a woman and man in the face. He then hit the man several times with a metal pipe, telling the man he would die that night.
"From what I have heard about the June and November offences, it seems that alcohol, drugs and maybe the mix of the two trigger or unleash something in Mr. Keyuajuk that makes him very, very explosive and dangerous to those around him," stated Justice Louise Charbonneau.
He was released from custody yesterday, according to RCMP Const. Elenore Sturko. She wasn't able to say at the time where he was being released from or what the incarceration was for.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada applied for a court order placing conditions on his freedom.
In territorial court yesterday morning, a judge considered those conditions. The full list of conditions were not available at press time but according to Susanne Boucher with the Crown prosecution office he will be on a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., to report to a probation officer and live at a specific address.
The information was released, including a photo of the man, after police considered issues including privacy concerns.
"Releasing this information is not intended to encourage people to engage in any form of vigilante action," the RCMP statement says.
Keyuajuk is described as an Inuit male who is 5'3 and 134 pounds.
He has brown eyes and black hair.
