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(ASHLEY LEGASSIC - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

CONTENT ADVISORY

KAMLOOPS - After serving roughly seven years behind bars, a Kamloops man with a history of violence against intimate partners will spend the next decade of his life closely supervised.

Craig Robert Cecil Ferguson, 41, was spared being labeled a dangerous offender by Kamloops Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley April 20, and has instead been labeled a long-term offender.

The long-term offender designation allows an offender to be observed by Corrections Canada for up to 10 years.

A dangerous offending hearing for Ferguson began in August 2016 and wrapped up last week. A dangerous offender label is used if Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt an offender has a history of repetitive, aggressive behaviour and poses a threat to the life, safety or physical or mental well-being of the public.

During Dley's reasons for his decision, he described the incidents that led to Crown seeking a dangerous offender label for Ferguson.

Court heard Ferguson took two separate girlfriends on two different occasions across the country from the Maritimes to Merritt, where he then assaulted them at or near motels.

In the first incident, Ferguson convinced his girlfriend in 2010 to move to B.C. with him from the east coast, and they arrived at a hotel in Merritt on March 31.

Court heard Ferguson threatened his girlfriend, assaulted her, gave a false name to police and was carrying a concealed knife. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to those charges.

The Crown in that case said Ferguson punched his girlfriend in the face after she refused to go under a building to retrieve a cat. She was worried he was going to kill her.

“I will kill you, you fucking goof. Don’t talk to police, I will kill you," Ferguson said to his girlfriend, according to a transcript read from that sentencing hearing.

He was given 18 months behind bars for that offence. 

In November 2012, Ferguson and a new girlfriend traveled from Cape Breton, N.S., to Merritt and rented a motel room. Court heard that on Nov. 17, Ferguson consumed crack cocaine and became upset with his girlfriend when she wouldn't sit with him.

He backhanded her and she hit him back. He then called his father, although it's not clear what the conversation was about. After hanging up he wouldn't let his girlfriend leave the room. He grabbed her by her arms and held her down, telling her she'd be dead by six o'clock and leave the room in a body bag.

He later told her she could leave to go to the washroom. When she did, he pulled off her clothes and strangled her with a laptop charging cord, to the point where she saw stars, court heard.

Motel staff came to the couple's room and the woman fled. Ferguson followed her down to the roadway, where a motorist pulled up and told Ferguson to leave her alone. The woman then went to a nearby motel and phoned police. He was arrested in Nova Scotia one month later.

Ferguson's dangerous offender hearing started in August 2016 and was adjourned to find community programs for him, but court heard he's had periods of instability since.

“It's apparent that the landscape has changed significantly from where Mr. Ferguson was in August 2016," Dley said.

In a psychological report from that period of time, a doctor referred to Ferguson as "institutionalized," pointing out he's been in and out of jail for most of his life.

Ferguson began to improve and stabilize after beginning to take care of his mental health, Dley said, which resulted in a new assessment in which a psychologist set out several recommendations for community supervision if Ferguson were to function in society.

During the sentencing hearing for the first incident, details surrounding the assault were not read into the record. Because it's not clear what actually happened in that assault other than the strike, Dley said the circumstance of each assault don't appear to be similar enough to create a pattern.

"Justice would not be served confronting Mr. Ferguson with a potential life sentence," Dley said.

Instead of an indefinite jail sentence, Dley imposed a roughly seven-year sentence, of which five-and-a-half years have already been served. This means Ferguson will spend 20 more months behind bars and then upon his release will be placed on a 10-year supervision order.

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