‘Demon’ gets 9 years for attacks

Kitchener man assaulted two women, terrorized them while on the run

KITCHENER — A Kitchener man who called himself a “demon” has been handed a nine-year prison sentence for a series of disturbing crimes against two women.

Joshua Lowe, 28, was sentenced on Thursday after a jury convicted him last summer of a dozen crimes, including sexual assault, assault with a weapon and making death threats.

“These offences were violent and particularly degrading,” Justice Catrina Braid said.

In September 2014, Lowe hit a woman in the forehead with a glass and then punched her in the back of the head four times.

Lowe told her “he was a demon and that he could do anything he wanted and she could not do anything,” Braid said in a recap of the case.

“He yelled at her and kept saying he was a bad guy and a demon. She kept telling him to leave … but he would not leave. He told her that she could not make it to the door before he would beat her and no one would hear her.”

Lowe told her he was going to kidnap her and “no one would care and no one would notice,” Braid said.

“She feared for her life. He spit on her, he grabbed her by her hair, he told her to get down on her knees so he could punch her in the face and that if she didn’t get down on her knees, she would get it worse.”

He forced her to perform oral sex and then told her she “had to have sex with him because she was a whore,” Braid said.

After forced intercourse, Lowe broke her prescription glasses and her phone and told her if she called police, he would kill her.

Later, Lowe begged for forgiveness and the woman moved in with Lowe and another woman, who acted as his surety for bail on other charges.

At one point, Lowe spat in the face of his surety and threatened to kill her son.

When she talked about revoking bail, Lowe told her, “Just try to get to your phone — you won’t make it.”

In October 2014, both women gave statements to the police. When police went to arrest him at the house, Lowe hid behind a door. When police didn’t find him, he fled to Hamilton and stayed on the run for months.

While on the run, Lowe called his surety

at her work.

“He said it doesn’t matter how many times you change the locks on your house or how many people you have stay there, I’m going to find you and kill you,” Braid said.

He also sent messages to the other woman, saying he was watching her and her son.

The two women say Lowe’s crimes wrecked their lives.

The woman who was sexually assaulted “never feels safe and avoids leaving her home,” Braid said. “She and her family fear for her safety on an ongoing basis.”

The other woman is also fearful. “She says that she lives her life looking over her shoulder in fear that Mr. Lowe will come back and hurt her,” Braid said. “She has stopped going out in the dark because she always has a fear that Mr. Lowe might be outside waiting for her.”

Crown prosecutor Michael Michaud sought 12 years in prison, pointing to a long criminal record, including crimes of violence.

“He commits violence freely, fiercely and without provocation,” Michaud wrote in his sentencing submissions. “His crimes call for deterrence and denunciation as paramount sentencing considerations. His prospects for rehabilitation are dim, and should be given little, if any, weight on sentencing.”

The presentence report “paints a bleak picture of an ill-tempered, violent recidivist with no insight or remorse for his crimes,” Michaud wrote.

Defence lawyer Ed Brown sought five years in prison.

Lowe has said he wants to turn his life around and hopes to enrol in a culinary arts program.

With enhanced credit for presentence custody, Lowe has another five years to serve. He was ordered to give a DNA sample and will be on the sex offender registry for 20 years.

A morning fire alarm in the courthouse delayed sentencing. Hundreds of people were forced outside for about 15 minutes.