Dangerous offender requests on the rise
If declared a dangerous offender, Burton will face an indeterminate prison sentence with no chance of parole for at least seven years.
Crown attorneys can seek the dangerous offender status during sentencing, but must prove there is a high risk the criminal will commit violent or sexual offences in the future.
Burton was arrested on the human trafficking charge in December 2012. Previously, he had been convicted of raping a teenage babysitter while the three young children she was watching were left unattended in another room. He also has convictions in his past for counterfeiting money and for drug and firearms possession.
In prisons across the country, there are only about 570 inmates deemed dangerous offenders, including Paul Bernardo, the country’s most notorious murderer and rapist; Johnson Aziga, the HIV killer; and serial child killer Clifford Olson.
Michael Owoh, Burton’s defence lawyer during the trafficking trial, said the Crown served notice of its intention to apply for dangerous-offender status following last year’s conviction.
Owoh, who has practised criminal law for12 years, said he has never represented a client facing a dangerous offender hearing. “This is quite rare,” he told the Star.
Brendan Crawley, spokesman for Ontario’s attorney general, said it was anticipated that a motion would be put forward in court Friday to determine whether Burton was convicted of a “serious personal injury offence” — the first step toward a dangerous offender application.
“The position of the Crown on sentence will be put on the record, in open court, and it would not be appropriate to make any comment before that,” Crawley said. Burton’s current lawyer Malcolm McRae told the Star the dangerous offender hearing would commence Friday.
He said it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics of his client’s case while it was before the courts.
Ontario’s attorney general consented to 44 dangerous or long-term offender applications in 2014.
While some lawyers say the dangerousoffender application is an extremely rare move used by the Crown, others claim it’s becoming increasingly common.
Toronto criminal lawyer Ari Goldkind, who has previously represented convicted criminals during dangerous-offender hearings, said that historically they were reserved for “the worst of the worst.”
However, the number of applications has recently been increasing, Goldkind said, adding he has represented six clients facing dangerous-offender hearings over the past two years.
“I absolutely, 100 per cent, think the Crown is acting properly given the track record of this man (Tyrone Burton),” Goldkind said. “While the dangerous-offender provision would obviously ensnare a dangerous menace to society like Tyrone Burton, they unfortunately ensnare people who do not appear with the same level of menace as he does.”
The Parole Board of Canada is required to review the status of a dangerous offender after seven years and every two years following that. Olivia Carville can be reached at 416-8142765 or ocarville@thestar.ca