Lawyers seek seven-year sentence for man with history of offences
Dominic Delisle convicted of drug and gun crimes, and of profiting from woman’s sex work
Crown and defence lawyers made a joint submission Wednesday for seven years in prison for a man with a history of sexually exploiting females.
Dominic Delisle pleaded guilty to a charge of benefitting from the provision of sexual services, along with possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and six firearms offences. As part of a plea bargain, the Crown withdrew charges of human trafficking, drug trafficking and five more gun-related charges.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Delisle was one of several subjects of Project Badminton, a joint RCMP/ROYAL Newfoundland Constabulary drug trafficking investigation.
Based on information they had received, police on the province’s west coast pulled over a vehicle on the Trans-canada Highway near Howley in August 2022 and arrested Delisle and another man, after finding a loaded handgun, brass knuckles, and a baggie with 11 ounces of cocaine in the car.
Delisle, a native of Quebec, was released on bail, but police arrested him again a month later after intercepting conversations that suggested Delisle was profiting from a woman's income as a sex worker.
Police captured conversations in which Delisle told people specific amounts the woman had made and that he was paying his bills with her income, saying she was “doing her part and understands.” In one conversation he told the woman to lower her rate, saying, “Do what I said.”
At the time of some of the conversations, Delisle was in a parked vehicle, waiting for the woman as she worked.
“We are legalizing sex work but not allowing workers to have assistance in that work,” defence lawyer Jon Noonan argued Wednesday, adding, “the facts don’t indicate any violence or coercion.”
He told the court the woman had been willing to testify as a defence witness, had the matter gone to trial.
“The law doesn’t say sex workers can’t have assistance,” countered prosecutor Trina Simms, saying that's not what Delisle's charge entails.
Citing decisions in previous Canadian cases involving the same charge, Simms argued the crime is inherently exploitative and violent, whether the violence is physical or psychological.
She also pointed to Delisle’s criminal record, which includes several convictions for sexually exploiting females, weapons offences and drug trafficking.
In 2018, a St. John’s judge sentenced Delisle to 15 months in jail for his role in a theft that involved renting a furnished condo in the Rabbittown neighbourhood, signing a lease under a fake name, then cleaning out the apartment’s contents and shipping it to Quebec City.
Delisle’s former partner was also charged and admitted to the court she committed the crime under the duress of Delisle, who had sexually exploited her and threatened to kill her.
Lawyers’ suggested sevenyear sentence includes one year for Delisle’s drug charge, and federal prosecutor Neil Smith, who is handling that offence, said he would have requested a tougher sentence were it not part of an overall sentencing submission.
“Guns and drugs are escalating, and we are asking this court and every court to take heed of that,” Smith said. “It needs to be treated very seriously and consistently.”
Noonan asked Provincial Court Judge Phyllis Harris to grant Delisle extra credit for the time he has spend on remand – up to three days’ credit for every one day spent in jail – due to the conditions at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary, saying he had never seen worse circumstances.
He told the court Delisle had contracted COVID-19 four times in jail, was denied medical attention for months only to be diagnosed with gallstones, had received little recreation time, went long periods without clean bedding or laundry, was unable to get a medically necessary low-fat diet, and had experienced rapidly deteriorating mental health, as evidenced by his journal, in which he wrote he’d rather die than stay at HMP.
Even contacting Delisle was challenging, Noonan said.
“It’s so difficult representing people incarcerated at HMP, we almost don’t want to do it anymore. It’s impossible,” he said.
Harris will deliver her sentencing decision April 2.