Man’s prospect of rehabilitation ‘grim’: Crown
Concern for complainant was main reason Crown agreed to a low sentence submission
In the early morning hours of Sept. 25, 2020, Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer Megan Dawe located a woman crying and shivering, and with blood on her face, attempting to flag down motorists while standing in the middle of Paradise Road in Paradise.
“Please call the police,” the woman said, as Dawe pulled her unmarked RNC vehicle over, stepped out and identified herself as a constable.
The woman began sobbing and told Dawe she had been beaten up by Dennis Murphy.
Murphy was well-known to police: he is a registered sex offender with a criminal record of more than 20 pages that spans three provinces, and the RNC had gone as far as to issue a public warning about Murphy in the spring of 2019 when he was released from Dorchester Penitentiary after serving a sentence for sex crimes against young females. Police said they had reasonable grounds to believe Murphy would commit another violent sexual offence, and noted his prior convictions include sex offences against vulnerable females to whom he had supplied drugs and alcohol.
The woman told Dawe that Murphy had picked her up from her residence hours earlier, in a hurry to get home before his 9 p.m. curfew. She told the constable that Murphy had a history of getting her drunk in order to try to take advantage of her, and that night had given her alcohol before trying to initiate sex with her. She refused and he punched her, then dragged her by the hair before she was able to escape, she said.
Dawe noted in her report that the woman appeared to have bruises on her arm, cuts on her nose and lip, swelling on her face, blood in her mouth and red marks on her neck, and her hair was in knots, with clumps falling out. It was hard to do an interview, the constable noted, because the woman was intoxicated and in need of medical attention for her injuries.
After being treated and released from hospital, the woman gave a statement to police the next day, saying Murphy had picked her up and stopped for Pepsi on the way to his place, and they had both been drinking it with rum. She told investigators she couldn’t recall how much they had consumed nor how she later got to the road, but recalled Murphy wanting to have sex with her and she telling him no.
“When I said no, everything went downhill,” the woman said.
While Dawe was with the woman at the hospital, two other RNC officers went to
Murphy’s Paradise home, finding his vehicle in the driveway, the residence dark and no answer at the door despite them knocking for some time. Police arrested Murphy later in the day and charged him with assault causing bodily harm, choking and breaching court orders. He has been in custody ever since and had been set to go to trial Tuesday on those charges as well as other allegations of breaching court orders and failing to appear in court.
Proceedings were postponed at the request of the Crown when the complainant didn’t show up, and in the afternoon prosecutor Robin Singleton returned with documentation indicating the woman was in self-isolation in preparation for a medical procedure. Murphy’s case was rescheduled for Wednesday, with Singleton and defence lawyer Ben Curties agreeing the matter would likely go straight to sentencing rather than trial.
On Wednesday, Murphy, 60, pleaded guilty to causing the woman bodily harm by assaulting her, breaching a court order and two counts of failing to appear in court.
Singleton withdrew the remainder of the charges as part of an agreement, she explained, that took the complainant’s fragile health situation into account.
Concerns for the woman’s well-being were the major factor in the Crown’s agreement on a sentencing submission for time served, Singleton said, adding she was unable to elaborate for privacy reasons. Otherwise, the suggested sentence would be far too low, she explained.
“Mr. Murphy’s behaviour has not changed. The prospect of rehabilitation, at this point in time, I would say is grim. I would also highlight what appears to be a pattern of taking vulnerable persons for his victims,” Singleton said. “Despite that, because of the quid pro quo I’ve already highlighted, we are asking for time served.”
Judge Mike Madden said he needed some more insight into the woman’s situation before he could consider the joint sentencing submission, which requires him by law to evaluate the quid pro quo — give and take on both sides — involved.
Singleton explained the Crown would have had, if the matter had gone to trial, issues with the woman’s statements to police, challenges related to a lack of contact with her leading up to the court proceedings and concerns for the woman’s health if she had been required to testify.
“So, the effect on her health and her ability to testify formed part of the quid pro quo?” Madden asked.
“Absolutely,” Singleton replied.
Curties told the judge that Murphy — who had suffered scratches of his own during the altercation — would have raised the issue of self-defence if the matter had gone to trial and took exception to the Crown suggesting Murphy had displayed a pattern of crime against vulnerable people. Murphy would have introduced evidence at trial to dispute the facts he was agreeing to as part of a resolution, Curties said.
“Mr. Murphy could have jumped on the fact that (the complainant) wasn’t present for the first trial date and taken the chance that she wouldn’t be here for the second, but didn’t,” Curties argued.
He described his client as someone who doesn’t drink or do drugs and has worked consistently since the age of 12.
When the judge asked him if he had anything he wanted to say, Murphy was brief: “I just want to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry, b’y.”
Madden will return with his sentencing decision early next week.