Fugitive father, son plead guilty in Quebec

Pair head back to Peterborough after bid to flee

A father and son who spent a month on the run after allegedly faking the father’s death have pleaded guilty to charges in Quebec and are on their way back to Peterborough.

The man, 49, and his son, 18, can’t be named under a court-ordered publication ban. The ban relates to charges of sexual assault and attempted murder city police laid against the father in May 2010 after a woman said she was assaulted in an Oshawa hotel room.

Both pleaded guilty in a Quebec court last week to possession of a prohibited weapon with ammunition and obstructing police. The father also pleaded guilty to breaching an undertaking. Both were sentenced to three months and 18 days.

City police Sgt. Deb Gillis confirmed that city police obtained a judge’s order requiring both men to be in court later this week.

The father is to appear in Ontario court in Peterborough on Tuesday where he will likely face further charges relating to his alleged breach of bail. Both are to appear in Superior Court in Lindsay Wednesday.

Police arrested the father in May 2010 after a woman told officers she was in an Oshawa hotel room when a man doused her in a flammable liquid and threatened to set her on fire when she refused to perform a sex act.

Those charges were set for trial in Superior Court of Justice on April 15, but one week before the trial began the father disappeared in the middle of the night, leaving behind a note stating that he wanted to “end it all.”

Hours later the man’s son was reported missing. Police said he told friends he was going to visit someone, but never returned home and never turned up at school.

A family friend eventually told police he drove the father and son from Peterborough to Port Hope on April 7.

As he dropped them off on Hwy. 2 near Ganaraska Rd. at about 10 p.m., the man told him the two were going to one of his favourite spots, the Lake Ontario shoreline.

Port Hope police found some of the father’s clothing on the beach, along with another suicide note.

But investigators never believed the man was dead, and launched a monthlong, Canada-wide investigation in their bid to find them.

The two were caught May 5 by CN rail police in Levis, Quebec, just south of Quebec City. Police said they were riding the rails, armed with a loaded, illegal shotgun. They initially gave the officers fake names but were arrested after exten- sive questioning.

Gillis said police are still investigating the man’s attempt to dupe police into believing he was dead and he could face a public mischief charge.