Crown wants “hammer” over molester’s head

SEAN MCKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Convicted sex offender Tommy Veevee will have to wait until Oct. 28 to hear if he will be designated as dangerous offender.

Veevee, who has a total of eight sex-related convictions, is serving a five-year jail term for a sexual assault he committed in October 1997.

Crown prosecutors want Veevee to get the dangerous offender label and the indeterminate sentence it carries for two other sexual assaults that Veevee committed in 1997. The Crown says Veevee’s record shows a dangerous pattern of crimes.

Under an “indeterminate” sentence, Veevee would stay until he is deemed to be no longer a threat to society — which could mean the rest of his life.

After hearing final arguments last Saturday, Justice Beverly Brown said she wanted to review evidence and arguments presented at Veevee’s week-long sentencing hearing before making a decision.

The court heard evidence from Veevee’s victims, his parents and other relatives; from social services officials; and from two psychologists from the Clark institute who had examined Veevee.

The psychologists said Veevee suffers from a number of mental disorders, including paraphilia, antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia, and borderline retardation. Both doctors said Veevee would be difficult to treat.

The only way to treat Veevee would be to force him to take chemical castration drugs to weaken his sex drive, Crown prosecutor Alan Regel said.

Veevee has refused to take the drugs in the past, Regel said, but a dangerous offender designation would allow authorities to keep Veevee incarcerated if he did not take them.

“If he doesn’t take it there’s that hammer hanging over his head,” Regel said. He said Veevee would need the drugs long after serving a conventional jail sentence.

Veevee’s lawyer, Tom Boyd, argued that Veevee’s criminal record did not fit the pattern of a dangerous offender, noting that Veevee hadn’t done anything serious before the age of 15.

He also said his client could instead be labeled a “long term offender.” That designation carries a two to 10 year sentence. with a 10-year extended parole period.

If Veevee was given consecutive sentences for each the two 1997 incidents, Boyd argued, that would be sufficient to ensure that his client would seek treatment.

Dr. Dickey said yesterday it could be 15-20 years, likely the rest of his life, that he’ll have to take them [castration drugs]. And with the dangerous offender designation that hammer could be there for the rest of his life,” Regel countered.

Regal said that the long term offender designation would release Veevee into the community on something more like a conditional sentence than an extended parole.

He said that if Veevee failed to take his medicine, there would have to be a trial to determine if the conditions of his release had been breached. With a dangerous offender label, there would be no end to Veevee’s parole period, and he could be brought back into jail at any time, Regel said.

Regal also disputed Boyd’s assertion that Veevee had no serious offenses before the age of 15, citing a break-and-enter that Veevee committed before he had reached that age.

“Most criminals start off with less serious crimes and work their way up,” said Regel.