Dungeon builder gets 2-year jail sentence
In sentencing Robert Edwin White to nearly two years in jail, an Ontario judge delivered a clear and direct message: “Building a prison cell as part of a plan to kidnap and confine a person is not tolerable conduct.”
On Thursday, the 45-year-old man who constructed a dungeon in a Pickering farmhouse was sentenced to two years less a day, the maximum time that can be served in a provincial jail.
Ontario Court Judge Mary Teresa Devlin acknowledged this to be a significant sentence for a first-time offender convicted of the relatively “ordinary” crime of breaking and entering.
But the purpose behind his multiple breakins was to build an “impenetrable prison” for Gwen Armstrong, the woman he erroneously blamed for his problems — and the sentence had to “send a clear message to Mr. White that his criminal behaviour was wrong,” she said. “The charge itself is quite ordinary,” Devlin said as she delivered her sentence in an Oshawa courtroom. “What is extraordinary about this case is that Mr. White’s multiple entries to the abandoned home were for the nefarious purpose of constructing a room to confine a specific person.” “Mr. White’s criminal behaviour has had a ruinous effect on the Armstrong family and members of his own family.” White was arrested on Feb. 13 after police found a confinement room in the basement of an empty Pickering farmhouse. According to an agreed statement of facts, White admitted to police he built the room but would not initially reveal who his intended victim was. Police eventually determined his target was Armstrong, a close friend of White’s ex-wife, Patricia Gallagher. When Gallagher left White in 2008, she and her children moved in with Armstrong and her husband, Doug. In early September, White pleaded guilty to breaking and entering with the intent to commit an indictable offence. A second charge of attempted kidnapping was withdrawn as a result. His lawyer, Paul Affleck, argued there is scant evidence to show White would ever have abducted Armstrong and asked for a sentence of seven to nine months. On Thursday, Devlin agreed that White should not be penalized for something that never happened. But she pointed out that White was “deliberate, methodical and persistent” in his “disturbing plan,” which he pursued for at least 18 months. “Mr. White committed the offence as part of a greater plan to kidnap and confine a person and he never abandoned his plan,” Devlin said. “Rather the plan was thwarted when he was arrested before construction of the confinement room was completed.” White will be credited for the 235 days he has served in pre-trial custody, meaning he now faces 16 more months in jail.
White closed his eyes and took a deep breath as Devlin announced his sentence. As he was led away, White smiled at his parents and his father gave him a thumbs-up sign. Absent from the courtroom Thursday were Armstrong and Gallagher, who attended his sentencing hearing in September to read their victim impact statements.
Gallagher said in her statement that she had an “abusive situation” with White. She filed for divorce in April 2008 and was initially granted sole custody of their two children, now aged 11 and 13. Since the separation, White has only had limited — and, initially, supervised — access to his children.
Meanwhile, Armstrong and her husband housed and fed the children and took them on holidays, court documents show.
For a time, the Armstrongs were also courtapproved supervisors for White during his visits with the children, an arrangement that resulted in at least one heated confrontation.
White stated in court that he blamed Armstrong for the destruction of his marriage and believed his children lived in a “bondage situation” under her roof.
After Thursday’s sentencing, White’s father, Jim White, fought back tears as he described his son as a good person and father. He and his wife, Carol, expressed disappointment with the sentence but acknowledged it may be for the best in the long run.
Jim White said his son told him about his plan in 2008 but he brushed it off as a fantasy.
White said he cannot understand the rationale behind his son’s actions. But he suggested that Gallagher and the Armstrongs were partly to blame for what has happened.
“He didn’t get there by himself,” Jim White said. “It took 15 years and three other people to put him where he is today.”