Dangerous-offender hearing resumes
By Shurtz, Delon on August 25, 2020.
Delon Shurtz
lethbridge herald
After being adjourned several times already this year, a hearing to determine whether convicted sex offender Trevor Philip Pritchard should be designated a dangerous offender has resumed in a Lethbridge courtroom.
The hearing resumed Monday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench where Crown prosecutors Donna Spaner and Sarah Goard-Baker, and Calgary lawyer Andre Ouellette continued their arguments before Madam Justice Johnna Kubik. If the Crown convinces the judge to rule Pritchard a dangerous offender, he would receive an indeterminate term of imprisonment without parole eligibility for seven years.
Pritchard, who is serving time in Alberta’s Bowden Institution, has convictions for sexually assaulting underage girls in 2004, 2009 and 2010. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to sexual assault and child luring in relation to one girl, and he was sentenced in February of last year to six and a half years in a federal penitentiary.
Court was told Pritchard carefully planned the assault and, using Facebook, carefully groomed the girl to trust him over several months before he finally took her to his house – under the pretense of giving her a job – and forced her into various sex acts. He then drove her home and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
He was also found guilty in January 2019 following a trial on charges of sexual assault, luring and possession of child pornography in relation to other girls. Sentencing on those charges was adjourned pending the outcome of the dangerous-offender hearing.
During opening statements to court at the start of the dangerous offender hearing last February, the Crown said Pritchard has shown a pattern of repetitive, persistent aggressive behaviour and a failure to control sexual impulses. She said the Crown will prove Pritchard is a “significant future threat.”
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