The Crown is seeking long-term offender status for a man who moved to B.C. after serving a six-year prison sentence for a series of rapes in Calgary.
Andrew Aurie Jefferson, 29, pleaded guilty in January to robbery and a two-day sentencing hearing began Tuesday in B.C. Provincial Court in Surrey.
Crown prosecutor Crichton Pike said at the beginning of the hearing that he would be asking for four and a half to five years in prison for Jefferson, plus applying for long-term offender status.
The designation is given to individuals convicted of a serious personal-injury offence who, on the evidence, are likely to reoffend.
Being designated a long-term offender can result in the offender’s prison term being followed by up to 10 years of supervision in the community.
Pike suggested the maximum term of supervision for Jefferson.
The offence that landed Jefferson in court on Tuesday took place on the evening of June 8, 2013 in Langley. He approached a woman in the parking lot of her apartment building and grabbed her from behind, saying, “You’re being stabbed, I’m taking your car.†He held a knife to her stomach and cut her. When the woman dropped her car keys, he took them and drove away in her car.
A witness in the apartment building called 911 and Jefferson was quickly located and arrested by Langley RCMP.
Pike said that when Jefferson was being photographed and fingerprinted by police, he said, “I’m f---ed. I’m going away for a while.â€
Jefferson is best known as the Falconridge Rapist, who terrorized a Calgary neighbourhood in 2006 with a series of armed rapes.
Jefferson admitted to three attacks and was sentenced in 2007 to six-and-a-half years in prison, less 30 months for time served.
Jefferson served his entire sentence and was initially set to be released in the Okanagan, but he ended up living in Mission briefly before settling in Surrey. His arrival in each community was accompanied by public warnings.
When Jefferson was released from prison, he was considered an untreated high-risk sexual offender. During his time in custody, he failed to complete high-intensity sex offender therapy and racked up a number of institutional charges.
Jefferson did little to rehabilitate himself in the first year and a half he was out of prison, instead repeatedly breaching a two-year peace bond that was issued by an Abbotsford judge when Jefferson was released.
In October 2012 Jefferson was sentenced to one day in jail for a breaching of recognizance that took place two months earlier in Surrey.
Jefferson breached again in December 2012 and was sentenced in February 2013 to two months in jail followed by three years of probation. That probation order included 21 conditions.
A few months later he was charged in connection with allegations that he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl he met on an online dating site. In April, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Jefferson not guilty of the charges.
According to his probation officer, Jefferson resisted taking programs for violence prevention and substance abuse, claiming that he did not work well in a group setting. He also missed appointments for psychiatric treatment.
His probation officer said there is no treatment for high-risk sex offenders in the provincial system, so she worked one-on-one with Jefferson.
Only after being arrested for the carjacking and spending an extended period of time in pretrial custody did Jefferson complete the violence prevention program and a series of online workshops.
However, according to a psychiatric report Jefferson remains a high risk to reoffend because he hasn’t addressed his risk factors, such as attitude and substance abuse.
“These behaviours are continuing and there hasn’t been a change,†Pike said.
The hearing continues.
- Jennifer Saltman is a reporter with the Vancouver Province
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