Dangerous offender hearing resumes

A hearing to determine whether convicted sex offender Trevor Philip Pritchard should be designated a dangerous offender has resumed in a Lethbridge courtroom.

The continuation began Monday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench, where the Crown hopes to convince a judge to rule Pritchard a dangerous offender. If the judge agrees, Pritchard would receive an indeterminate term of imprisonment without parole eligibility for seven years.

The dangerous offender hearing began Feb. 3, but after five days was adjourned and scheduled to resume in late March for several more days. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, the matter was adjourned again. The hearing wasn’t scheduled to run Tuesday, but will continue today and run until the end of the week.

Pritchard, who is appearing in court by closed-circuit TV from Alberta’s Bowden Institution, has convictions for sexually assaulting underage girls in 2004, 2009 and 2010. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to sexual assault and child luring in relation to one girl, and he was sentenced in February of last year to six and a half years in a federal penitentiary.

Court was told Pritchard carefully planned the assault and, using Facebook, carefully groomed the girl to trust him over several months before he finally took her to his house — under the pretense of giving her a job — and forced her into various sex acts. He then drove her home and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

He was also found guilty in January 2019 following a trial on charges of sexual assault, luring and possession of child pornography in relation to other girls. Sentencing on those charges was adjourned pending the outcome of the dangerous-offender hearing.

During her opening statements to court at the start of the dangerous offender hearing, co-Crown Prosecutor Sarah Goard-Baker said Pritchard has shown a pattern of repetitive, persistent aggressive behaviour and a failure to control sexual impulses. She said the Crown will prove Pritchard is a “significant future threat.”

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