David Wesley Bobbitt leaving the Penticton courthouse.
Image Credit: Global Okanagan (with permission)
July 04, 2014 - 1:44 PM
PENTICTON - David Wesley Bobbitt sat in the prisoner’s box for two weeks, listening to how his violent actions affected others, how police think he’s a liar, and why he is a psychopath and sexual sadist.
The dangerous offender hearing and sentencing for Bobbitt began on June 23 and will continue Sept. 2. Crown prosecutors Debra Drissell and Nashina Devji have brought several witnesses to the stand in front of Justice Peter Rogers in Penticton Supreme Court, including ex-girlfriends and victims, victims' family members, doctors and RCMP officers.
In the first days, an ex-girlfriend told her story of a 2007 rape incident, where Bobbitt forced himself on her and covered her face with his hand to keep her from screaming, she said. In a police video statement, Bobbitt said she was the one who attacked him, that he was not a violent person and was innocent. But RCMP said his story was so inconsistent they couldn’t believe him.
Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe, who testified later in the hearing, said he encountered Bobbitt’s inconsistent storytelling while he interviewed the offender in prison after a 2011 assault of a 22-year-old woman. Bobbitt’s odd and violent behaviour started from the early age of 12, when he beat up girls and pulled a knife in school.
Lohrasbe concluded that Bobbitt is a psychopath and sexual sadist — a person who is aroused by their victim’s suffering.
The mother of the 2011 victim also took the witness stand for a tearful testimony as she recounted the day her daughter went missing, only to be found in a second-hand shop, badly beaten but alive. She was taken to hospital and operated on after receiving serious blows to the head — Bobbitt used a hammer to hit the woman on the head. He also bite, burned and sexually assaulted her while her 22-month-old son watched.
The evidence will be used by Rogers to determine whether Bobbitt should be labelled as a dangerous offender. A dangerous offender is considered to be an extreme threat to the public based on a longstanding history of violence.
Bobbitt is being sentenced for the 2011 assault, which he pleaded guilty to seven charges including confinement, sexual assault and aggravated assault in April 2013.
The hearing is scheduled to take two weeks when it reconvenes in September.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014