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Bourque gets five years for deadly beating at party
Family, friends of Emerson Curran recall grief that followed his 2013 death

Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Monday, September 28, 2015

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The city's largest courtroom was nearly full Wednesday as the impact of the manslaughter death of Emerson Curran in 2013 was recounted during Roman Bourque's sentencing hearing.

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Defence lawyer Peter Harte, left, holds the door open while his client Roman Bourque leaves court Wednesday afternoon. - Shane Magee/NNSL photos

Curran, 20, had been working for Air Tindi that summer. He went to a house party the night before he was set to go home and ended up in an argument with Bourque. Bourque, now 25, repeatedly punched Curran in the head, even after his head hit a piano and fell unconscious. Curran died the next day in Edmonton.

It was an attack Crown prosecutor Marc Leccore said was closer to murder than accident and NWT Supreme Court Justice Karan Shaner called a "impulsive, stupid, violent act" as she sentenced him to five years in prison Thursday.

"Obviously seeing him taken into custody gives us a little bit of satisfaction," Michael Curran, Curran's father, said outside the courthouse after Bourque was sentenced. The family would have liked Bourque to receive a longer sentence, he said. He repeated that the time spent between his son's death and the sentencing was far too long, at more than two years.

The day before in court, Curran's parents and a close family friend spoke about how the death has shattered the family. A total of 23 victim impact statements were presented to Shaner that told of the grief that spread across the country beginning with those punches on Friday, Aug. 24, 2013.

"The real victim of this crime is not here," Michael Curran said, his voice breaking with emotion and holding up a framed photo of his son toward the judge. He spoke of how for a year after the death he would spend Friday nights imagining his son's last moments.

"We have been sentenced to a life of sadness and loss," said Catrina Curran, Emerson Curran's mother.

When Emerson was born, she said she had vowed to protect him at all costs.

"I can't help but feel that I failed in protecting him," she said.

She has been diagnosed as suffering depression with post-traumatic stress disorder and has been unable to return to work since her son died.

"I'm angry that I've spent over two years of my life cleaning up Roman Bourque's mess," she said, talking about the reams of paperwork she has had to deal with, such as a $17,000 bill for the medevac flight that carried her son to Edmonton from Yellowknife before his death.

Lecorre read many of the impact statements to the judge. As he began the seventh statement, he broke down in tears. Court was suspended for five minutes while he gathered his composure outside the room.

A grandmother, Diane Curran, wrote of how unimaginable it is to have a grandchild go off on a summer adventure only to have his ashes return.

There was the grandfather Charles Curran who wrote that he has buried five family members but has struggled with this death the most. He wrote of how Curran's dog still sits by the window, waiting for the young man to come home from school. But he doesn't.

Stephen Donoghue wrote about his son Ryan Donoghue, one of Curran's childhood friends, who essentially lost a year of university following the death because he couldn't focus. He wrote that Ryan Donoghue had given CPR to someone who, in the end, died. His son was upset he couldn't help the man more than he did.

He felt he needed to because he hadn't been there to help Curran.

"Will I forget his voice?" Ryan Donoghue wondered in his own statement, who said Curran would've been his best man at his wedding. How does one make sense of senseless violence, Curran's aunt Marie-Claire Patterson questioned. She wondered about the lasting impact on her son Michael Patterson, a cousin of Curran who tried to pull Bourque off at the party, but was unsuccessful and saw the beating continue.

A friend of Curran, Brendan Johnson, wrote that he became depressed and dropped out of university. Johnson wrote he got to the point of waking up knowing how good life had been and could have been but that it will not be like that now.

After the statements were read aloud and Lecorre asked the judge for Bourque to be sentenced to five to five and half years in prison, defence lawyer spoke of his client's history.

Bourque had been removed from his father's care at the age of two and went through eight foster homes, one described as abusive, before settling with Jason and Rebecca Clarke when he was 14.

He said the Clarke family took him in because of how polite and kind he was, pushing the family to be involved in various sport activities.

"He's not the monster some people believe him to be," Harte said.

Bourque, his hands shaking as he read prepared remarks, said he'll carry the guilt of his actions for the rest of his life.

"I'm truly sorry for the pain and hurt that I have caused," he said to Curran's parents.

"This is an utter tragedy," Shaner said delivering her decision yesterday. "This was a sudden and sustained attack. Roman could have walked away. He didn't."

Along with five years in prison, he's been ordered to provide a DNA sample to a national database and is prohibited from possessing firearms for 10 years after his release.

She suggested he be allowed to serve his time in the territory. He is also prohibited from directly contacting Curran's parents or siblings.

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