Appeal court upholds Paxton’s abuse conviction
Alberta’s top court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of roommate-abuser Dustin Paxton.
In a unanimous decision, a threemember panel of the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the decision of then-Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sheilah Martin, who found Paxton guilty of abusing his roommate and business partner over a period of months.
Paxton was convicted of sexual assault and aggravated assault for his abuse of the former roommate, as well as uttering threats to and assaulting another man.
Defence counsel Alias Sanders had argued Martin — since elevated to the appeal court — erred in applying the test of reliability and credibility in assessing the testimony of both victims.
She also said the trial judge misapprehended the evidence of the two men.
Martin found Paxton guilty of the four charges after a lengthy Court of Queen’s Bench trial.
She found that although Paxton didn’t expressly request sexual favours from his roommate, she believed the man’s testimony that he performed sexual favours to avoid further brutal physical abuse.
A publication ban prohibits naming him.
“In essence, he used sex as a further weapon of assault,” Martin said of Paxton, in her Feb. 6, 2012, ruling.
Much of Martin’s lengthy verdict focused on the evidence of physical abuse the man endured at Paxton’s hands while the two men ran a moving business out of their Centre Street N. home.
She said Paxton’s regular beatings on the victim, which resulted in broken bones, cauliflower ears and a badly damaged lip amid myriad wounds, were the cause of his near deadly condition by the time the two men parted ways.
Throughout her ruling on the aggravated assault charge, Paxton repeatedly smirked and shook his head as she dismissed defence submissions or found Crown witnesses credible.
But when Martin said she disbelieved Paxton’s claim to police that the two men never engaged in any sexual contact, his demeanour changed drastically.
Paxton initially bowed his head in disbelief and when he did look up, the anger in his face was apparent.
Crown prosecutor Jolaine Antonio — who has since been appointed to the bench — said Martin should never have even entertained Paxton’s application for a stay of proceedings suggesting the defence was “simply fishing” during various disclosure applications.
And Antonio, during arguments last month, said that Martin’s rulings, in rejecting both the stay application and her verdict convicting Paxton, were sound ones.
Martin ruled Paxton was a dangerous offender and handed him an indeterminate prison term.