A convicted rapist living in Surrey has been designated a long-term offender by a B.C. Provincial Court judge, meaning he will be strictly monitored for a decade following his jail term.
Andrew Aurie Jefferson, 29, was in court Friday morning to face sentencing for a June 2013 violent carjacking in Langley. But due to his criminal history, Crown prosecutors also wanted Jefferson deemed a long-term offender – status sought when a felon is likely to re-offend and puts the community at risk.
Judge Michael Hicks sentenced Jefferson to four years in jail for the Langley carjacking, for which Jefferson pled guilty to robbery in January. In that incident, a woman was in a parking lot heading for her car when Jefferson, high on cocaine, approached her from behind and said, "You are being stabbed. I am taking your car."
He pointed a small, dull-bladed knife into her stomach, the court heard, and when she dropped her keys, Jefferson grabbed them, got in her car and sped off. A witness called 911 and police apprehended him shortly after. He's been in prison since.
Hicks said the victim suffers long-term impacts from the attack, including anxiety, loss of sleep, heightened fear and suspiciousness of others.
With credit for the 497 days Jefferson has been in custody for that crime, about two years, seven months remain of the four-year sentence.
The judge then addressed Jefferson's lengthy and violent criminal past to assess his future risk.
While he had numerous weapons and theft offences as a youth, it was in 2006, when he was 22, that he committed his most heinous crimes. It was then that he terrorized a Calgary neighbourhood called Falconridge, violently raping two women and attempting to rape a third. Jefferson was dubbed the "Falconridge rapist."
He served six-and-a-half years in jail before being released on probation in 2011 to live in Surrey, with a public warning that he was an "untreated sex offender."
In 2012, he was charged with sexually assaulting a teen in Surrey, but found not guilty earlier this year.
In court in August, Jefferson apologized for his crimes and vowed he was turning his life around, having steered clear of drugs of late and completed a violence prevention program.
But on Friday, Judge Hicks said Jefferson still has a long way to go.
"There is a substantial risk that Mr. Jefferson will re-offend," he said, saying he "must" be designated a long-term offender.
The purpose of the sentence was not intended to penalize Jefferson, said the judge, but to provide adequate support so he may eventually be rehabilitated.
Long-term offender status differs from dangerous offender status in that a long-term offender faces strict community supervision for a maximum of 10 years, while a dangerous offender may be sentenced to an indefinite prison term.
The extra designations can be applied for by prosecutors during sentencing. Such an application was not made in the case of convicted rapist Raymond Caissie, who served his time and was living in Surrey when he was charged with murdering 17-year-old Serena Vermeersch last month.
- with files from Monique Tamminga