Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
National

Metro Vancouver Serial Child Rapist Ibata Hexamer Disputes Computer Evidence In Sentencing Hearing

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 29 Sep, 2015 12:56 PM
    VANCOUVER — The judge in the sentencing hearing of a child serial rapist is grappling over allowing access to the man's computer that police say was full of child pornography.
     
    B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams said the stakes are high for Ibata Hexamer and has called a hearing next week to determine the admissibility of the computer evidence in the sentencing process.
     
    Hexamer pleaded guilty in 2013 to four counts of sexual assault and two counts of confinement involving six victims aged six to 14, one of which dates back to 20 years. 
     
    Prosecutors want Hexamer to be designated a long-term or dangerous offender for his crimes.
     
    "If Crown succeeds in having Mr. Hexamer designated a dangerous offender the consequences for him are great," said Williams on Monday. "He could spend the rest of his life in prison."
     
    Hexamer's lawyer, Gary Botting, said police should not have been allowed to access his client's computer, which allegedly contained thousands of images of child porn.
     
    Williams took issue with Botting's decision to raise such objections so late in the process, after a forensic psychologist had already completed a psychiatric assessment. He called the move "an astounding proposition."
     
    "I will say this quite pointedly: the manner in which the defence has dealt with this issue is unfortunate in the extreme," said Williams.
     
    The sex assaults started in 1995 and ended in 2009, after Hexamer attacked a six-year-old girl in Surrey, B.C. He threatened to stab the little girl with a knife before forcing her 12-year-old brother and his 15-year-old friend to lay on the ground in the woods and look away while he sexually assaulted her.
     
    Hexamer pleaded guilty in 2012 to six of the original 23 charges on the condition that the Crown drop the remaining 17, Botting said in an interview outside the court. He added that Hexamer bargained for a 15-year sentence and that prosecutors agreed not to pursue dangerous-offender status.
     
    Botting said his client applied to change his guilty plea earlier this year and fired his previous lawyer, Donna Turco, after she allegedly accepted a deal without Hexamer's consent that didn't include the dangerous-offender condition.
     
    In June, the judge dismissed Hexamer's bid to alter his plea.
     
    Hexamer, who's in his 40s, is a former DJ and political campaign organizer, with experience working on a municipal election campaign in Vancouver and for the NDP in Vancouver-Centre for the 2006 federal election. He has cycled through five lawyers since his arrest in late 2010.
     
    He remains in custody and his sentencing will continue on Oct. 8.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    B.C. Bishop Says Abstinence Is The Only Healthy Choice Over Hpv Vaccine

    B.C. Bishop Says Abstinence Is The Only Healthy Choice Over Hpv Vaccine
    A Catholic bishop in British Columbia says a vaccine that protects girls against a sexually transmitted infection isn't inherently wrong, but abstinence is the only healthy choice.

    B.C. Bishop Says Abstinence Is The Only Healthy Choice Over Hpv Vaccine

    Guy Turcotte Trial Hears That He Admits To Causing Children's Deaths

    Jurors at Guy Turcotte's first-degree murder trial heard Thursday that he admitted to causing the deaths of his two children.

    Guy Turcotte Trial Hears That He Admits To Causing Children's Deaths

    Jewish Groups 'Astonished' That NDP Candidate Not Aware Of Auschwitz

    Jewish Groups 'Astonished' That NDP Candidate Not Aware Of Auschwitz
    Leaders in the Jewish community reacted with dismay on Thursday after it was revealed that Alex Johnstone, the NDP candidate in Hamilton, Ont., referred to fence posts at Auschwitz as being phallic on Facebook in 2008

    Jewish Groups 'Astonished' That NDP Candidate Not Aware Of Auschwitz

    RCMP File Terrorism Charges Against Man Believed To Be Fighting Overseas

    RCMP File Terrorism Charges Against Man Believed To Be Fighting Overseas
    Farah Mohamed Shirdon, 22, faces several offences, including participation in the activity of a terrorist group and instructing others to carry out terrorist activity.

    RCMP File Terrorism Charges Against Man Believed To Be Fighting Overseas

    Lodge Your Complaint: Some Winnipeg NHL Fans Upset With New Obstructed Views

    Lodge Your Complaint: Some Winnipeg NHL Fans Upset With New Obstructed Views
    WINNIPEG — Ron Wersch got a surprise when he walked up to his usual seat for the first NHL exhibition game in Winnipeg this season: a wall of Plexiglas and metal to his front and side that blocks his view of a good portion of the ice.

    Lodge Your Complaint: Some Winnipeg NHL Fans Upset With New Obstructed Views

    Edmonton German Shepherd Maverick Top Dog In Police Canine Association Contest

    Edmonton German Shepherd Maverick Top Dog In Police Canine Association Contest
     An Edmonton police dog has won top honours in the annual Canadian Police Canine Association competition.

    Edmonton German Shepherd Maverick Top Dog In Police Canine Association Contest