Close X
Monday, November 25, 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

    Manitoba Premier Speaks At Rally For Road To Shoal Lake 40 First Nation

    Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger says residents of the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation deserve to see an all-weather road to their community move forward.

    Manitoba Premier Speaks At Rally For Road To Shoal Lake 40 First Nation

    Two Men Rescued Without Injuries After Tugboat Sinks In Vancouver's Burrard Inlet, No Fuel Leak

    Two Men Rescued Without Injuries After Tugboat Sinks In Vancouver's Burrard Inlet, No Fuel Leak
    There's No Evidence Of A Fuel Leak After A Tugboat Capsized In Vancouver's Harbour

    Two Men Rescued Without Injuries After Tugboat Sinks In Vancouver's Burrard Inlet, No Fuel Leak

    Body Of Man Recovered From Lynn Canyon In North Vancouver After Drowning

    Body Of Man Recovered From Lynn Canyon In North Vancouver After Drowning
    RCMP divers retrieved the body from a creek in Lynn Canyon on Saturday afternoon.

    Body Of Man Recovered From Lynn Canyon In North Vancouver After Drowning

    Divers To Recover Body Of Young Man From Vancouver’s Lynn Canyon: RCMP

    Divers To Recover Body Of Young Man From Vancouver’s Lynn Canyon: RCMP
    Mounties say divers hope to recover the body of a young man from the waters of a popular park in North Vancouver on Saturday morning.

    Divers To Recover Body Of Young Man From Vancouver’s Lynn Canyon: RCMP

    B.C. Man James Bonnell Charged In Shooting Deaths Of Two Dogs That Killed Chickens: SPCA

    B.C. Man James Bonnell Charged In Shooting Deaths Of Two Dogs That Killed Chickens: SPCA
    The SPCA investigated and alleges that James Bonnell shot a two-year-old female Labrador-cross and an eight-year-old female Rottweiler/shepherd cross in May.

    B.C. Man James Bonnell Charged In Shooting Deaths Of Two Dogs That Killed Chickens: SPCA

    Calgary Bus Driver Jesse Rau Says He Was Fired For Not Wanting To Drive Bus Celebrating Gay Pride

    Calgary Bus Driver Jesse Rau Says He Was Fired For Not Wanting To Drive Bus Celebrating Gay Pride
    Jesse Rau distributed to media his termination letter from Calgary transit, saying he had been fired in part for his stance on the Pride bus, for speaking out to the media and for things on his Facebook page.

    Calgary Bus Driver Jesse Rau Says He Was Fired For Not Wanting To Drive Bus Celebrating Gay Pride