New Brunswick man jailed for major sexual assault in Baffin

Ashley Sherrard, 37, of Miramichi, N.B., received a sentence of four and half years in jail after pleading guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman Sept. 14, 2011 at a drunken party held in a Baffin hamlet now known only as community “X,” Justice Robert Kilpatrick ruled March 8.

Sherrard, a carpenter, is married with two small children and holds no previous criminal record.

This past Sept. 14, Sherrard, who had been working in community X, held a party at his residence there.

His 20-year-old victim, her boyfriend, and other adults settled in for what became a night of heavy drinking for most guests, Kilpatrick said.

When the 20-year-old, known only as “AB,” passed out on the floor of Sherrard’s bedroom, her friends offered to take her home, but Sherrard, who was also intoxicated, said she was okay where she was.

After the young woman’s friends, including her boyfriend, left to go home, Sherrard picked her up, put her on his bed and had had “full sexual intercourse with the 20-year-old while she was unconscious,” Kilpatrick said.

Two other people watched, but did nothing.

“He was observed doing this by two other people attending the party. These citizens did not intervene,” Kilpatrick said in his judgment.

Sherrard then forced his hand inside AB’s vagina and anus, causing a tear in the wall of her rectum.

“There was significant blood loss. There would be much pain and discomfort associated with this type of injury,” Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick also pointed out that sexual offences against sleeping victims are “a common occurrence” in Nunavut.

“These offences tend to be alcohol related. As of 2007, data from Statistics Canada suggests that Nunavut has 13 times the national per capita rate of sexual offences,” Kilpatrick said.

After Sherrard “came to his senses” around 5 a.m. that morning, he went to the local RCMP to get help for AB, who was then medevaced to the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit.

The woman recovered eventually from the injuries and suffers no permanent disfigurement, Kilpatrick said.

Sherrard, who has been held in custody since the incident, gave a full confession and entered a prompt guilty plea, Kilpatrick said.

“He readily cooperated with the investigating authorities and gave a full account of his own involvement in the commission of this offence. Mr. Sherrard’s behavior is consistent with a claim of remorse on his part,” Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick said all this stands in Sherrard’s favour as mitigating factors.

On the other hand, the bodily harm Sherrard inflicted on his victim “propels this offence to the highest level of moral culpability,” he said.

Crown lawyer Jeanette Gevikoglu asked Kilpatrick to consider a jail sentence of about eight years, while defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt suggested a sentence of about three years.

Kilpatrick settled on a jail sentence of 46 months, to be served starting this past March 8.

With a credit of eight months for time spent awaiting trial, Sherrard’s total jail time will equal four and a half years, he said.

Sherrard must also submit a DNA sample, be registered as a sex offender and be prohibited from owning a firearm for 10 years, Kilpatrick said.