National Post (National Edition)
Where is ‘Butchang’ Nkem? And how did a convict vanish?
SASKATOON • Two years ago, Timloh “Butchang” Nkem just disappeared.
He’d been convicted of rape and was supposed to appear in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench for sentencing arguments on Oct. 31, 2014.
But that day, his victim had a sinking feeling that something was wrong.
The nearly empty courtroom was her first sign. Once the judge was seated, Nkem’s lawyer explained that much to her surprise, her client wasn’t there.
Justice Richard Danyliuk issued a bench warrant and adjourned court to give Nkem the benefit of the doubt: maybe he was late or had the time wrong. An hour passed. He was nowhere to be found.
Legal aid lawyer Kim Armstrong revealed Nkem had not shown up for their scheduled meeting earlier in the week.
When she last saw him, he expressed some concern about the sentencing, she told court. Nkem had attended every appointment up until then, she added.
Court was adjourned with the sense that the worst had happened: A convicted rapist who was allowed to remain out of custody pending his sentencing had fled.
Sarah was disappointed and devastated, but not surprised at the outcome.
“When they said that he was being released I said to my mom, ‘He’s not showing up’. I knew right away that he was gone.”
Nkem raped Sarah (her name has been changed to comply with a publication ban on her identity) in an off-campus University of Saskatchewan residence on New Year’s Day, 2012.
Sarah describes the trial in June 2014 as gruelling. Nkem was convicted of sexual assault on Sept. 16, 2014.
That same day, Danyliuk acquitted an acquaintance of Nkem of sexual assault, ruling the man had an honest but mistaken belief that he had received consent.
Sarah testified she blacked out after being drugged at a bar earlier that night, something she remains unwavering about to this day.
She had flashes of memory involving the acquitted man and painful sex, but no memory of going to an apartment — or of ever meeting Nkem.
In fact, Sarah didn’t know about Nkem’s involvement until a DNA match was made months later.
The acquittal of the first man was crushing, but at least there was one conviction, Sarah thought.
Someone had been held accountable for her rape; he would be sentenced, and she would finally get to stand up in court and read her victim impact statement directly to him.
Then Danyliuk made a decision that snuffed out all hopeful thoughts: he allowed Nkem, who had been free on bail throughout most of the court proceedings, to remain out of custody for the six-week span between his conviction and sentencing.
“I was really frustrated that they wouldn’t keep him,” Sarah recalls.
“I remember thinking, ‘For six weeks, why does he get freedom when he has been found guilty of this? This doesn’t make any sense.’ ”
Crown prosecutor Buffy Rodgers had opposed his release. The Crown considered Nkem — who came from Nigeria to Canada on a student visa in 2006 — a flight risk.
He also faced outstanding charges of breaching his bail conditions while awaiting trial on the sexual assault charge, Rodgers argued.
“One of the things that’s highly valued in our country and our society is the presumption of innocence. It’s my view that once a person is convicted, then he should be taken into custody to await his sentencing,” Rodgers said in an interview.
She also outlined in court that the Crown intended to seek a federal prison term, since sentences for major sexual assaults in Saskatchewan are generally in the three-year range. That was another reason Nkem should have been held, she maintained.
Danyliuk decided Nkem could be managed in the community and would return to court for his sentencing.
He released the rapist on the same conditions he had been on since he got bail in 2013, including showing up to court when expected and surrendering his passport to the court if it were ever returned by border services. Sarah sits at her kitchen table, describing the painful effects of the ordeal.
“I basically had to rebuild my whole life after Nkem not showing up,” she says.
“Just thinking about the anniversary of this, I realized how much I was still really hurting and how much I needed to deal with it.”
Sarah required more counselling after Nkem took off, but her funding for treatment has run out. She still struggles with memory loss, anxiety, insomnia and difficulty opening up to new people, including a fear of intimate relationships.
After the trial, she withdrew from her university classes because of the emotional toll it took on her.
In the year that followed Nkem’s no-show, Sarah buried much of her pain.
Not only was she still dealing with the trauma of being raped, Sarah says she was then re-traumatized by the Canadian court system that has allowed her rapist to go free.
She explains how “awful” it was to hear the judge’s parting comment, mentioning the offender first.
“I appreciate that this is very difficult for both friends and supporters of Mr. Nkem,” Danyliuk said before acknowledging it would also be difficult for Sarah and her family.
Then it took seven weeks for Saskatoon city police to post Nkem’s photo to the wanted section of the police website.
Once it was posted, the caption indicated only that Nkem was wanted for not showing up for sentencing.
Sarah questions why police didn’t state that Nkem is a convicted sex offender.
“Certainly we can have that fixed,” police spokeswoman Alyson Edwards said when contacted for this story.
She said Nkem’s photo was first posted to the Crime Stoppers website but unfortunately, there was a delay when posting it to the city police website. A request has to be made by the investigating officer before a photo is put online, Edwards said.
A Canada-wide arrest warrant was also issued and applications were made for an “Interpol Red Notice.” It means the province committed to have Nkem extradited if he is arrested in a foreign country that has an extradition treaty with Canada.
“We believe he is in Africa ... and that’s based on extensive investigation,” Edwards said. “That’s where he is from, that’s where he may have some supports in place as far as family and friends go.”
Canada does not have an extradition treaty with Nigeria.
The notion that Nkem fled the country is always in the back of Sarah’s mind, but she clings to the possibility that he is living somewhere else in Canada.
A Facebook page she created, entitled “Where is Timloh ‘Butchang’ Nkem,” aims to spread the word about the case.
“I think of him every single day and if I go to another city I’m like, ‘What are the chances I’m going to run into him?’ If he’s in Canada, I need people to see this because I need help.”
She also believes Nkem could have assumed a different identity — which Rodgers agrees is a possibility.
“It would seem that he may have travelled in circles where he would have had access to that type of thing,” she said. He also has family in powerful places.
Nkem’s father was a member of the Nigerian High Commission and the family lived in many different countries, according to a pre-sentence report obtained by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
When Nkem disappeared, it erased everything the trial had accomplished for Sarah. Her sense of justice was stripped away and her voice was silenced.
“Until he’s found it will be really rocky. It will take me a lot more of wanting to bury (things) and then acknowledging that I need to do healing.
“I feel like I’m going to go back and forth because I’m still feeling that extreme heartache,” she said.
“He should never have been given that freedom.”
IF HE’S IN CANADA, I NEED PEOPLE TO SEE THIS BECAUSE I NEED HELP.