Veevee a dangerous offender, judge says

SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Repeat sex offender Tommy Veevee got an indefinite jail term last week.

“I believe the protection of the public and the rehabilitation of Mr. Veevee is best served by the declaration of Mr. Veevee as a dangerous offender,” said Judge Beverly Brown while giving her sentencing decision on Oct. 28.

Veevee, a resident of Pangnirtung, was given the dangerous offender designation for two sexual assaults he committed in 1997. He was already serving a five-year sentence for another assault he committed in October of that same year.

The designation means that Veevee, who has eight sex-related convictions out of a total of 22 criminal offences for which he has been convicted, will be incarcerated until a parole board feels he is no longer a threat to the public.

“Mr. Veevee has shown an inability to control his sexual impulses,” Brown said.

She noted that two psychiatrists who had treated and examined Veevee said he suffered from an unusual combination of psychiatric disorders and social conditions including schizophrenia, alcoholism, pedophilia, marginal intelligence, and a possible personality disorder. Both had said treatment would be very difficult.

Veevee would be more likely to get treatment and take the chemical castration and psychiatric drugs prescribed to him if he was labeled a dangerous offender, Brown said.

Treatment would require a long time in a confined setting and she said that if Veevee were ever released, the state would be able to jail him again if he were not behaving.

“He has three convictions for serious and brutal sexual assaults,” said Brown. Witnesses gave evidence that suggested Veevee had committed other assaults that he has never been charged with, Brown said.

During her decision, Brown painted a picture of an impulsive, disturbed man, shunned by his community.

“Mr. Veevee enjoys none of the elements of ordinary life,” she said.

Veevee showed remorse for his actions and seemed unable to explain his behaviour. She said that he struggles with extreme side effects from some of the drugs he is prescribed

“I think the state should have the ability to control his freedom in the future,” she said, adding that the dangerous offender designation gives corrections authorities the ability to make Veevee’s freedom contingent upon his participation in treatment and taking his medicine.

Brown asked for Veevee to be detained if possible in a mental institution, and said she hoped that the evidence assembled for the hearing would be made available to the people caring for Veevee in the future.

“Now it’s up to you, Mr. Veevee, to satisfy the parole board that you will take responsibility for your behaviour and take the advice of the people trying to help you and that you take your medicine without resistance,” she said.