Potential rapist thwarted by smartwatch handed 71/2-year sentence
The Calgary man who plotted to rape a female acquaintance he obsessed over before being caught red-handed in her apartment needs to get over her, a judge said Tuesday.
“I’m no psychiatrist … but it appears to me that you’ve got a lot of work to do,” provincial court Judge Margaret Keelaghan said, moments after sentencing John Joseph Macindoe to a 71/2-year prison term.
“The starting point for your work is that this woman must no longer exist for you,” she said.
Keelaghan noted that an assessment by psychiatrist Dr. David Tano found Macindoe is still a risk to commit a similar stalking crime.
“The most concerning risk factor for his recidivism is his ongoing obsession with sex and intimate relationships with the victim.”
Macindoe, 35, pleaded guilty last October to 11 charges, including break and enter with intent to commit sexual assault.
He admitted breaking into the woman’s apartment on April 1, 2019, with the intent of raping her.
He found his victim sleeping on her couch, and while he stalked around the apartment she used her smartwatch to contact her boyfriend, who summoned police.
“She felt the intruder hovering over top of her near the middle of the couch and she could feel his heavy breathing,” the judge said of the excruciating minutes the victim waited for help to arrive.
“She described herself as paralyzed with fear.”
When police arrived and knocked on her door, Macindoe maintained his position over her. When they knocked a second time, he retreated to her pantry and she was able to rush to the door.
Found with Macindoe was a “rape kit,” which included zip ties, a large buck knife and bondage straps for her hands and feet, Keelaghan said.
Surveillance video from the woman’s apartment complex showed Macindoe had broken into the building on nine previous occasions in the preceding month, and a search of his home uncovered two pairs of her panties and a clump of hair that matched the length and colour of the victim’s.