Kugaaruk sex killer pleads guilty to second degree murder, two child sexual assaults

Shawn Kayaitok, 23, hides his head inside his sweatshirt as he prepares to enter a court room for a sentencing hearing Sept. 10 in Iqaluit. Kayaitok pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of sexual assault Sept. 8. Justice Robert Kilpatrick will likely issue a written sentencing decision later this month. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

(Updated and revised 7:00 a.m., Sept. 11)

A Kugaaruk man who killed a five-year girl, then hid her corpse inside an empty water tank after having sex with her lifeless body, now awaits a Nunavut judge’s final sentencing decision after pleading guilty Sept. 8 to a bargained-down charge of second degree murder.

Shawn Kayaitok, 23, appeared in court again on the afternoon of Sept. 10, when lawyers made a joint submission on sentencing.

Kayaitok, a short stocky man with a bespectacled face, closely-cropped hair and a wispy goatee, did not speak to the court during his sentencing hearing.

Wearing a blue, correctional centre sweatshirt, he sat quietly beside his lawyer, Sue Cooper, for the entire proceeding.

After hearing the two-hour Crown-defence submission, Justice Robert Kilpatrick said he’ll issue a written sentencing judgment. He’s expected to read that judgment on the afternoon of Sept. 17.

Crown lawyer Judy Chan and Cooper agree Kayaitok should serve seven years in prison for the two sexual assaults, and on the murder charge, be unable to seek parole for 18 years.

Second degree murder carries a mandatory minimim sentence of life imprisonment with a parole ineligibility period of at least 10 years.

If Kilpatrick agrees to the joint submission, it will be the toughest second degree murder sentence ever imposed in a Nunavut court since the creation of the territory in 1999.

Chan provided most of the evidence that Kilpatrick will rely on: an agreed statement of facts and 37 other pieces of tabled evidence, mostly witness statements and forensic reports.

Chan said that in a statement given to police, Kayaitok admitted he lured the five-year-old girl to a shack behind House 31 in Kugaaruk on the evening of March 9, 2006.

He told police that when the five-year-old screamed with fear, he put his hand over her mouth and smothered her to death.

In his statement, Kayaitok said he did not intend to have sex with the girl when he first took her into the shack, but it’s not clear what he intended

Lawyers did not refer to any psychiatric evidence in their submissions and no psychiatric report was tabled as an exhibit.

After he had sex with the child’s corpse, Kayaitok stuffed the little body into an old water tank and covered it with clothes to hide it.

Kayaitok went home afterwards to take a nap, then went out again to play floor hockey, Chan said in the statement of facts.

Nurses who examined the child’s body discovered signs of rape when they took a rectal temperature reading. The girl’s labia were damaged as well.

At the time, Kayaitok was under a court order forbidding him to have contact with children under the age of 18.

That’s because, two months before the killing of the five-year-old girl, on Jan. 14, 2006, Kayaitok tried to rape a 14-year-old boy, also inside a shack in Kugaaruk.

Chan said the boy resisted the attack by keeping his buttocks closed and sitting on the ground, but investigators were later able to find enough material on the boy’s body to make a close match with Kayaitok’s DNA.

After police charged him with sexual assault in relation to that incident, he was released under the court order and given probation for some minor offences.

The girl, part of Kayaitok’s extended family, had been riding her bicycle on the evening of March 9, 2006, near an area where the man was playing road hockey.

Her mother, in a statement given over a videoconference link with the Kugaaruk health centre, said she asked the girl to come in from playing at around 5:00 that evening.

But the girl wanted to keep riding her bicycle around the hamlet. She was last seen between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. that evening. Searchers found her body the next day.

After a series of interviews, police charged Kayaitok with first degree murder and interference with a dead body.

To identify him, police took a DNA sample from a cigarette butt he threw away during a smoke break. Kayaitok’s DNA matched DNA swabs taken from the girl’s body to an extremely high degree of probability.

The other sexual assault came to light afterwards. In that incident, Kayaitok drove a seven-year-old boy to the old stone church in Kugaaruk some time between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, 2005, then pulled the boy’s pants down and raped him.

The boy kept the attack to himself until some time after March 9, 2006, when he told his parents about it.

Chan and Cooper used the sentencing hearing to make a pitch for their plea-bargained agreement, which would see Kayaitok plead guilty to the lesser charge of second degree murder and to two sexual assaults.

People convicted of first degree murder may not apply for parole until after they spend at least 25 years in prison. For those convicted of second degree murder, courts must order parole ineligibility periods of at least 10 years.

Chan said the crimes caused “irreversible damage” to the family members of victims and to the people of Kugaaruk.

Near the end of the hearing, Kilpatrick asked Chan if she had any statement to make to the public about the case. Chan said she didn’t.

He also asked Cooper to comment “on the strength of the Crown’s case.”

Cooper replied by defending the plea bargain, saying it had been “on the table for a long time” and that it spared witnesses the pain and inconvenience of having to give evidence in court.

She also said that because the Nunavut court system is “stretched to the limit,” such negotiated plea arrangements are in the best interests of the system.

The worst aggravating effects of Kayaitok’s crimes were visible on two flat-screen monitors that displayed a video feed from the Kugaaruk Health Centre, where family members were gathered to make statements to the court.

Those statements suggest the families may never recover from their trauma.

The mother of the dead five-year-old girl said she’s consumed with guilt every day and that her husband blames her for their daughter’s death.

“My husband says it’s my fault,” the woman said.

The mother of the seven-year-old boy said her son was once a happy boy but now lashes out in anger.

“He started breaking things and yelling. He was so hurt,” the mother said.

The mother of the 14-year-old said her son was teased in school about the incident and that other children called him a liar.

One thing is clear: no one in Kugaaruk ever wants to see Shawn Kayaitok again.

“I’m pretty sure nobody wants him in town,” one family member said.

The names of the complainants, and most witnesses, may not be published or broadcast.