‘Serial’ assaulter gets extra time in jail

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This article was published 27/09/2022 (1241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 33-year-old man who has a history of assaulting his former domestic partner was sentenced to 27 days in jail for striking her again.

Conan Taylor appeared before a Brandon courtroom via video conference Monday to plead guilty to domestic assault, violating a no-contact order and failing to report to his probation officer in March.

Taylor has been incarcerated since getting arrested on Aug. 13, two days after he attended the home of his ex-partner at Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.

After making contact with the victim, Taylor proceeded to chase her on and around the property, eventually grabbing her by the hair and striking her.

While the former partner suffered a headache because of this Aug. 11 assault, she did not require any medical attention.

However, Crown attorney Andrew Sieklicki told the court on Monday that the severity of the victim’s injury is not the issue at hand.

Rather, the bigger concern is the fact that Taylor has five prior assault convictions involving this same person, which shows a clear pattern of dangerous and obsessive behaviour that is exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol.

“So I think we can be assured that Mr. Taylor isn’t getting the message and he is, to put it frankly, a serial committer of assaults against this individual,” Sieklicki said.

Because of Taylor’s criminal record, the Crown attorney suggested that he spend 60 days in custody for committing this assault and 30 additional days for violating the no-contact order that forbade him from visiting the complainant.

Sieklicki added 15 days on top of that for Taylor’s failure to report to his probation officer earlier this year, resulting in 105 days in custody overall.

Since Taylor has already spent 68 days in jail (45 real days with enhanced credit), this means he would have to spend 37 more days behind bars if endorsed by Judge Patrick Sullivan.

While defence attorney Jennifer Janssens partially agreed with her colleague’s recommendation for sentencing, she believes his time in custody for these three charges should be shaved off by 40 days altogether.

Janssens believes that this is more in line with Taylor’s previous conviction for assault and it better considers her client’s status as an Indigenous person and the Gladue factors embedded within that.

However, Sullivan ultimately sided with the Crown’s approach to sentencing, although he did agree to reduce Taylor’s failure to report to a probation officer charge from 15 days to five days.

This means that Taylor will be spending another 27 days in jail as of Monday, although Sullivan ensured that he will be subject to two years of supervised probation once he is released.

Taylor must abide by a variety of conditions during that time, like abstaining from owning weapons and avoiding contact with the complainant in this case.

Talking to Taylor directly on Monday, Sullivan stressed the importance of following the no-contact order in particular, given his history of repeatedly assaulting his former partner.

“I think the Crown has rightly described this problem as ‘chronic,’” the judge said.

“It seems that you just cannot control yourself, particularly in the context of this relationship, and that’s troublesome.”

Sullivan also recommended that Taylor use the next month in custody to map out a better future to avoid reoffending and get his demons under control.

“You’ve got some positive things going for you,” the judge said. “It sounds like there’s some work waiting for you. I think that’s a great place to focus your energy here in the short term and I wish you luck with the alcohol and the addiction piece.”

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