Cory Lawrence Bitternose will remain behind bars indefinitely as a dangerous offender after the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld a Crown appeal of his sentence.
Cory Lawrence Bitternose will remain behind bars indefinitely as a dangerous offender after the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld a Crown appeal of his sentence.
Judge Barb Veldhuis ruled last June that Bitternose could be rehabilitated after a lengthy jail term. She handed down a 20-year sentence along with a ruling that he was a dangerous offender.
The Crown appealed the sentence, asking for an indeterminate sentence for Bitternose, who had pleaded guilty in March 2009 to two counts of kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm, assault, uttering threats and dangerous operation of a vehicle in relation to a July 13, 2008 attack on two women in Banff.
In his decision, Justice Jean Côt
é found an error in law, but did not order a new sentencing hearing as it would "be a great injustice to everyone, especially in light of the limited scope of this appeal and the past procedural misfortunes."
"At present, he is a loaded gun with a hair trigger," wrote Côt
é, noting Bitternose's crimes have been nasty, dangerous and random. "It appears to be mere happenstance that one or more of his victims has not died."
Dangerous offender status is given only to Canada’s most violent criminals. The Crown must show a criminal has a pattern of violent behaviour and a substantial degree of indifference to their crimes, in addition to the violence of the crime for which they are charged.
