Crown seeks 20 years for convicted sex offender
Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison sentence for a small business owner convicted of sexually exploiting two vulnerable 13-year-old girls, one of whom later died of a drug overdose.
Michael Bruce, 44, was found guilty after trial last year of 11 sex-related offences, including luring, in connection to the two girls as well as a then-19-year-old woman.
'I learned first-hand the damage predators inflict on their prey,' the deceased girl's grandmother wrote in a victim impact statement that was read out in court Wednesday.
'We as a society, as adults, should be protecting our children against this degrading psychological terror,' the woman said. 'It's been a long time coming, but the day is finally here for all those children — justice.'
Court heard evidence at trial that Bruce, who owns and operates an HVAC business, had contacted a woman who lived in the Charles Walk area, in the North End, in April 2022 to arrange to have sex with her in exchange for work he had completed. The woman instead provided him with contact details for a 13-year-old girl.
Bruce contacted the girl over Facebook and arranged to have sex with her in his pickup truck in exchange for $20 and a case of Twisted Tea alcoholic drinks.
The girl's grandmother learned about the sexual assault and contacted police. The girl provided two video statements but later died as the result of a drug overdose.
Court heard testimony Bruce had sex with the second 13-year-old girl, who was in foster care, as payment for giving her a ride home.
The adult victim testified Bruce sexually assaulted her in his truck when she was intoxicated and slipping in and out of consciousness.
Bruce testified he believed the first girl was 17 years old and claimed the sex was consensual, as was the sex with the adult victim. He denied having sex with the second 13-year-old girl.
Bruce admitted at trial when one of the girls threatened to report him to police, he told her: 'Who are they going to believe — a gang member or a homeowner?'
Bruce was arrested in June 2022, but not charged until the following September after Winnipeg police completed a lengthy analysis of his electronic devices.
'It is impossible to quantify… the level of harm these offences will have on these (victims), their families, and the community at large,' Crown attorney Kellie Stashko told Court of King's Bench Justice Sadie Bond on Wednesday.
Bruce 'recognized their vulnerability and intentionally exploited them for his own selfish desires,' Stashko said.
A forensic psychiatric report and presentence report prepared for court said Bruce – who admits to a long history of 'transactional' sex with women both in and out of the sex trade — continues to minimize his actions and their effect on the victims.
'There is really nothing to suggest this offender understands his risk factors in any way,' Stashko said.
Stashko said a 20-year prison sentence was 'just and appropriate' and the minimum period necessary to satisfy the sentencing principals of denunciation and deterrence.
'These were not crimes of opportunity… every step he took was a deliberate choice, not an error in judgment,' Stashko said.
Defence lawyer Mike Cook urged the judge to sentence Bruce to just six years in prison, describing him as a loving father of two and community-oriented businessman who has bought and renovated several rental properties to open up housing for the needy.
Cook said Bruce had an upbringing marked by poverty, housing instability and exposure to domestic violence. Bruce was raised by a single mother and had no male role model. Cook argued Bruce's sexual maturation was stunted by early and prolonged exposure to pornography and an uncle who glorified empty sexual conquests.
'Micheal Bruce was not taught about love, caring, how to be a good spouse or boyfriend,' Cook said. 'He lacked some of the foundational blocks that would take him into adulthood… It's no surprise that he found himself in trouble as years went by.'
Since his arrest, Bruce has joined sex addicts anonymous, a decision 'truly indicative of an internal motivation to change,' Cook said.
Bruce offered a tearful apology to his victims, saying he never set out to exploit children.
'My criminality stems from my involvement in the sex trade,' he said. 'I did not seek out teenagers for sexual gratification, but I didn't say no and avail myself of the opportunity to walk away and figure out the truth of their age and I should have.'
Bruce said he will regret what he did 'for as long as God allows me to be on this Earth' and is learning how to be a better person.
'I will spend the rest of my days trying to right the wrongs of my past and whenever society permits it, I will try to find ways to help vulnerable women and girls from being exploited sexually,' he said.
Bruce will be sentenced June 23.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean PritchardCourts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Man acquitted after B.C. judge rules he ‘likely' slashed woman but Crown couldn't prove it
A man accused of slashing a woman in the face in an apparent stranger attack in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has been acquitted, even though the judge ruled it was 'more likely than not' that he was the accused. In a ruling delivered Thursday, Provincial Court Judge G.M. Rideout concluded that while it was possible Shone Robert Selbie was the attacker caught on CCTV, the evidence wasn't good enough to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. 'It wasn't me,' Selbie told Global News outside the court. 'That's why the judge found me innocent.' 'I look like the person in the video,' he added. Selibe, who turns 52 this year, had been charged with a single count of aggravated assault in Aug. 11, 2024 attack in the 400 block of Cordova Street that left a woman with a serious laceration on her cheek. Story continues below advertisement 1:53 Vancouver machete attacker sentenced CCTV footage captured from two social housing buildings on the block depicts a man hunched over and swaying and holding a box cutter in his hand. In the video, he can be seen putting a woman into a headlock, appearing to slash her face, and then casually walking away. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The case hinged on the identity of the accused, and the Crown's ability to prove it. At trial, the Crown pointed to the CCTV images themselves, along with testimony from a Vancouver police officer who had interacted with Selbie twice that summer and identified him in court from the images. At trial, prosecutors argued Selbie had a distinctive face with prominent features, including crooked and pointy nose, high cheekbones, and sunken cheeks with deep-set eyes. On the stand, the officer further testified he was '100 per cent certain' Selbie was the person depicted in the CCTV images that had been compiled into a police information bulletin. Story continues below advertisement Selbie's defence argued the CCTV footage was of average quality, and never caught a clear full facial image of the attacker. It also noted that the officer had pointed to the attacker's Nike shoes as a distinctive identifying characteristic, but had incorrectly described the logo on them as black when it was actually white. 0:54 Vancouver police safety trailer vandalized in Downtown Eastside In acquitting Selbie, Rideout agreed the CCTV footage shows someone with a pointed nose, but acknowledged it never caught a full facial view of the suspect. 'Clearly there are some physical characteristics of the suspect in the CCTV footage consistent with the accused's appearance in court,' he ruled. 'I am unable to say with any confidence that the suspect in the CCTV footage is the accused before this court.' Story continues below advertisement The identifying officer, he added, does not have any special training in identification, and 'agreed in cross-examination that some of the characteristics he identifies as distinctive to the accused can also apply to other individuals.' Rideout noticed that in the CCTV footage, the suspect had a distinctive walk, a 'physical hunch-like walk consistent with drug addicts' known in the Downtown Eastside as the 'benzo gait.' The identifying officer, he said, never noticed anything distinctive about Selbie's gait in the two interactions he had with the accused that summer. 0:30 Vancouver police officer slashed with knife in Downtown Eastside Those interactions, together, lasted for about 45 minutes — not enough for his level of familiarity with Selbie to rise to the level of being 'so well acquainted' with him to make his identification 'certain and safe,' Rideout said. 'His recognition evidence is insufficiently reliable to assist the court in identifying the accused as the suspect in the identification bulletin,' Rideout ruled. Story continues below advertisement That led the judge to conclude that while Selbie was more likely than not the attacker, the Crown hadn't met the threshold of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. 'The inherent frailties of identification evidence are well known to the law and have been the subject of frequent judicial consideration and comment,' he said, quoting a legal precedent. 'We must, however, never regard these principles as trite. They are fundamental.'
Calgary Herald
6 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Crown seeks first-degree murder conviction against Calgary man in 'grotesque' killing of woman
Slain Calgary sex-trade worker Judy Maerz fought for her life before murder suspect Christopher Ward Dunlop killed her, a prosecutor suggested Friday. Article content In seeking a first-degree murder conviction against Dunlop, Crown prosecutor Greg Piper said the evidence points to no other conclusion. Article content Article content Piper noted Maerz had defensive wounds on her hands and arms and Dunlop likely cut himself in the brutal attack in a northeast Calgary athletic park, which he described as a 'grotesque … overkilling.' Article content Article content Blood found in the snow near Maerz's torched remains, initially thought to be hers, came back first as being male and a later DNA analysis determined it was Dunlop's. Article content Article content 'In the attack it turned into a fight, or a struggle,' Piper told Justice Colin Feasby. Article content 'What we're asking you to find is Ms. Maerz fought for her life and in that process Mr. Dunlop was cut.' Article content The prosecutor said video footage of Dunlop at a pet store the afternoon of Feb. 15, 2023, the day before Maerz's body was found in the Deerfoot Athletic Park showed his right index finger was fine. Article content But CCTV surveillance from the following afternoon captured Dunlop with a blood-stained wrap around that same digit, Piper said. Article content He told Feasby the logical inference was the blood stain found near Maerz's body was Dunlop's and it was deposited during the killing. Article content Dunlop, who previously served the equivalent of a 13-year sentence for manslaughter in the 2009 killing of sex-trade worker Laura Furlan, faces Feb. 16, 2023, charges of murder and causing and indignity to a body for setting the victim's remains on fire. Article content Article content Piper said scratches on Dunlop's arm noted after his March 1, arrest were also consistent with the victim fighting for her life. Article content 'Male DNA was on her fingernails,' Piper said, noting not in sufficient quantity to create a scientific profile. Article content Piper also said CCTV footage entered into evidence during his and co-prosecutor Hyatt Mograbee's case should lead to the conclusion Dunlop picked up Maerz on the Forest Lawn stroll on 19th Avenue S.E. in his wife's Rav4 and took her to the park off 8th Avenue N.E. Article content He said while surveillance evidence can have its drawbacks 'it is an objective, silent, disproportionate observer.' Article content Among the pieces of video evidence introduced in the case was CCTV footage from a Peter Lougheed Centre parking lot where Dunlop's wife had parked her SUV. Article content
Ottawa Citizen
8 hours ago
- Ottawa Citizen
Lam sisters called family for help amid alleged abuse before killing their mother, court hears
Article content On the day of Kieu Lam's death, her son received a call from his sisters asking for help after days of escalating abuse, only for their mother to take the daughter's phone away, a jury heard Friday. The brothers are expected to testify next week when the defence begins its case. Article content Sisters Chau Kanh Lam and Hue Ai Lam are facing first-degree murder charges in the death of their mother, Kieu Lam, on Oct. 31, 2022. Article content Article content Article content Defence lawyer Ewan Lyttle, who is representing Chau, gave his opening statements to the jury Friday morning after the Crown closed its case against the Lam sisters. Article content Article content The jury heard how Kieu gave her daughters a life devoid of love, compassion and protection. Instead, Chau and Hue's life was filled with 'control, violence and cruelty,' Lyttle said. Article content 'Kieu Lam gave life to her daughters but Kieu Lam did not give her daughters a life.' Article content On Monday, the defence will begin presenting evidence and calling up witnesses, where Chau and Hue are expected to testify through a Vietnamese interpreter. Their older brothers are also expected to testify to their mother's alleged abusive nature throughout their lives. Article content The jury heard how the brothers witnessed the alleged abuse starting in the Lam sisters' early life in Vietnam, when they were beaten with straps, and continued at their home on Bowmount Street. Article content Article content One of the brothers will say that Kieu was ashamed of her daughters for not getting married and not being able to work at times, Lyttle said. When Hue developed Parkinson's disease and was unable to work, Kieu's abuse allegedly escalated further, as Hue was the family's main source of income. Article content Article content 'They feared for their safety and had to kill their mother to end a decades-long mental and physical campaign of violence,' Lyttle said. Article content The jury heard that Kieu made the 'whole family suffer' and one of the brothers had to physically prevent their mother from attacking his sisters, Chau and Hue. Article content 'Both brothers will tell you that their mother adhered to strict old-fashioned Vietnamese rules,' Lyttle said. In the culture they were raised in, he says no child would 'ever dare fight back.'
