Former med student who raped sleeping woman gets 3 years
CALGARY — A former medical student has been sentenced to three years and nine months of incarceration for the sexual assault of an unconscious woman.
During a sentencing decision for Prachur Shrivastava, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Jolaine Antonio said Wednesday there was “no excuse” for sexually assaulting an unconscious stranger.
Antonio said the fact that the victim, who can’t be identified due to a publication ban, was “functionally unconscious and therefore at her most vulnerable” demands a strong deterrent message.
Shrivastava was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs after Antonio delivered the sentence.
The 27-year-old, who was 22 at the time of the offence, was found guilty of sexual assault last year for raping the stranger at a friend’s home in May 2014. The victim had gone out for drinks with a group of friends and fell asleep at the house.
“I allow a small measure of mitigation for Mr. Shrivastava’s youth,” Antonio said. “I give no mitigating or aggravating effect to his lack of prior convictions, lack of remorse, loss of reputation or altered career path. Mr. Shrivastava’s character does not mitigate the gravity of the offence, or his degree of responsibility.”
Defence lawyer Dale Fedorchuk had initially proposed a sentence of 90 days imprisonment and two years probation; a position that he later revised to eight to 12 months imprisonment. The Crown had asked for a sentence of four to five years.
Fedorchuk had emphasized in his arguments that his client’s character is “not merely good, but exemplary,” and argued that this should justify a lenient sentence, Antonio noted in her written decision.
“Acknowledging that the evidence and sentencing materials do little to explain why the offence was committed, defence counsel speculates that Mr. Shrivastava may have felt the pressure of his achievements and reputation,” the document states. “He suggests the offence was a ‘stupid decision’ to seize an ‘opportunity’, flowing from alcohol and temptation.”
Antonio said she finds no place “for the abstract notion that good deeds can create a bank of credit to be drawn on sentencing.
“Therefore, I am unable to treat good, or exemplary, character as mitigating,” she said. “Mr. Shrivastava’s degree of responsibility is high. The only factor that tempers it somewhat is the fact that he had consumed alcohol, though its effects were not debilitating and did not undermine the deliberateness of the offence.”
Antonio described the offence as “predatory” and said the conduct “must not be minimized or rationalized away, least of all by reference to ‘temptation’ or ‘opportunity.’ ”
“I emphatically reject any innuendo that a woman’s body, or the body of any victim, is a natural sexual ‘temptation’ that an offender might simply be unable to resist,” she wrote, adding that while she rejected the “rape-myth theory advanced by defence counsel,” she did not use it against Shrivastava in determining a fit sentence.
The judge concluded that rehabilitation has not yet been effected, because Shrivastava “showed no insight into his behaviour, and instead continued to minimize his authorship of the offence.”
Shrivastava had been a medical student for a year and a half before he was charged with the offence, when he was placed on academic leave. He went on to complete a master’s degree in biotechnology in 2018.
The judge noted in her written decision that the “significant impact” of the offence was apparent on the victim at trial. In an impact statement, the victim described “her constant fear and distrust of people, her troubles with sleeping, and her ongoing depression and anxiety.”