Voyeur sentenced again after 37 more offences

While he was on probation for prior voyeurism offences, Kyle Ronald Hameluck was at it again, this time secretly recording women through the windows of homes and off-campus residences near the University of Saskatchewan.

The repeat voyeur was sentenced on Wednesday in Saskatoon provincial court after Judge Miguel Martinez accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence of two and a half years.

Hameluck, 32, pleaded guilty to 37 voyeurism offences occurring between February 2018 and March 2019, and one breach charge encompassing his reoffending while on probation.

He was arrested in March 2019 after complaints led police to review surveillance footage from the College Quarters Residences off Cumberland Avenue, which showed Hameluck lurking outside the buildings and peering through ground floor windows two months earlier.

Police searched his phone and found 42 videos of 25 women who were either partly undressed, naked or engaged in sexual activity, Crown prosecutor Evan Thompson said when reviewing the facts of the case.

Two women were identified, and one gave her victim impact statement by phone on Wednesday. She said Hameluck’s actions left her traumatized, unable to sleep and forced her to leave her home of nine years.

“Home is supposed to be sacred. The world can already be a very scary place, but when you can’t go home at the end of the day and feel safe, that’s when it’s terrifying,” she said.

She added that it was disturbing to learn Hameluck lived nearby in the Varsity View neighbourhood, where court heard he committed most of his offences.

The second identified victim indicated in a written statement that she fears Hameluck will find her when he gets out of jail.

Thompson said despite his prior incarceration for voyeurism, Hameluck showed no regard for the privacy or safety of the women he violated.

“Offences do not have to involve physical touching to represent a serious violation and have a lasting effect,” he emphasized.

Thompson acknowledged that Hameluck’s guilty pleas spared police and the Crown from attempting to identify more victims and burdening them with the knowledge that they were recorded.

At the time of the offences, Hameluck was on a three-year probation order after pleading guilty in 2017 to 11 incidents involving recording women through their windows and masturbating in public places. Most of the offences happened in Saskatoon’s City Park neighbourhood.

Defence lawyer Shane Kozakavich said his client has not dealt with his childhood sexual abuse, which Hameluck believes has contributed to his voyeuristic behaviour.

“I regret my actions. At the time I didn’t realize the effect it would have on somebody. I want to enter treatment and better myself for the future,” Hameluck said from jail.

Personal and sex offender counselling is part of the two-year probation order that will follow his jail sentence; slightly more than a year of the sentence remains to be served after applying his enhanced remand credit.

For the first 12 months of his probation, he will be on electronic monitoring with a 24-hour curfew, except when he has prior written permission. He is ordered to not be within 100 metres of his victims’ homes, workplaces or schools and to not possess any electronic device that can take videos.

Hameluck was also ordered to forfeit the phone that contained the videos and photos of his victims.