Sex attacker curses court in sentencing
Richard Roberts handed 42 months for sexual assault
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A man who threatened to burn a woman and her house down after sexually assaulting her while she was asleep in her bed was sentenced to three and a half years in prison Thursday - a decision that did not please him.
Richard Roberts, 36, swore repeatedly as he stood up from the prisoner's box and attempted to leave the courtroom.
He said he was "going home" - to his cell - and called the sheriff derogatory names when he asked Roberts to return to his seat.
"Forty-two months for something I didn't do," Roberts said as Supreme Court justice Shannon Smallwood delivered her sentence.
Roberts was also convicted of uttering death threats and uttering threats to destroy property.
He has been ordered to serve six months concurrently to the sexual assault charge for the offences.
He was originally charged with breaking and entering and committing an indictable offence.
Smallwood found him guilty of sexual assault after a four-day trial by judge alone that began on May 9, 2016.
According to the statement of facts determined by the judge, the complainant woke up to Roberts on top of her and sexually assaulting her on Sept. 6, 2014 while she was sleeping in her bed.
He punched the victim in the face five to six times, knocking her out.
When she regained consciousness, she tried to push him off but he continued to sexually assault her. After the assault, Roberts got up, got dressed and told the woman that he would burn her and her house down if she told the police what happened.
In a victim impact statement read in court on Wednesday, the woman wrote that she was "shocked" by the sexual assault.
"I did not ask to be sexually assaulted," the statement said.
The woman said she stopped leaving her house, couldn't eat properly, suffered sleep disturbances and feared Roberts might hurt her by destroying her home.
"It's clear the incident ... had a lasting impact," Smallwood said of the complainant while giving her decision on Thursday.
She added sexual assaults occur far too frequently in the NWT and that this case was on the more serious end.
"The victim was entitled to feel safe in her home," Smallwood said.
In making her decision, the judge recognized Roberts did not have a lengthy criminal record and that his pre-sentence report indicated he is aware he needs to improve his behaviour so he can take care of his three children.
He also seemed to have strong support from his family, she added. Roberts' parents and siblings were in court on Wednesday and Thursday.
The fact that the sexual assault was committed while the woman was asleep was an aggravating factor, she said.
In addition to time in prison, Smallwood ordered that Roberts be registered on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.
He faces a mandatory firearms ban which ends 10 years after his release from custody and will be given 10 months of credit off his total sentence for time he has already spent in custody since the sexual assault.
