Medicine Hat News
A hearing into whether a three-time convicted sex offender in Medicine Hat should be declared a dangerous offender was delayed on Thursday after attorneys challenged how an assessment was approved.
Christopher Michael Delmas is in custody serving time for sexual assault that he initially pled guilty to in 2015.
Since then, Crown prosecutors stated they would seek dangerous offender status for the 35-year-old Medicine Hat man, which would result in an open-ended sentence and put the possibility of any future release on the offender via an application process after a set time.
After an unsuccessful appeal to vacate his 2015 guilty pleas, Delmas was to have the hearing this week.
On Thursday however, defence lawyer Allan Fay petitioned Judge Gordon Krinke stating he had concerns about how ordering an assessment review was handled this summer.
He argued the onus for such a report was on the Crown to argue and for the judge to determine if it was warranted. Instead, said Fay, all parties consented without arguments.
The document would make up a substantial portion of the case against his client, and could form the basis of a future appeal.
“The reality is that this is all three of ours problem,” Krinke told Fay and Crown prosecutor Jace Cowan.
“The best way to proceed is to seal the assessment, then hold a hearing to determine if it is admissible.”
That hearing is now scheduled for Oct. 26.
Crown prosecutor Jace Cowan argued the hearing should go ahead, and that the defence did not object at the time the assessment was requested, but agreed to the procedural change.
“The defence should not be allowed to see what the assessment says then decide if they oppose it,” he told court.
It is believed this case is the first time local court has dealt with such an application.
Delmas was present, dressed in blue jeans and track jacket in the prisoner’s dock, with closely cropped hair, a shadow of a beard and thick-rimmed glasses.
Delmas has convictions for three separate sexual assaults over an eight-year span, during which he spent at least six-and-a-half years behind bars.
Delmas was most recently arrested in 2015 and held since then on two charges of sexual assault against a Medicine Hat woman and one count of choking with intent.
Those came shortly after his release in 2014 serving a full four-year term on two sex assaults and another charge of sexual interference against a minor, who was 14 at the time.
At the time of his 2014 release, Alberta Justice and local police issued a public warning that Delmas was at high risk of re-offending.
It stated, “Delmas has a pattern of deviant sexual behaviour which includes offences that cause physical and psychological harm, and is viewed by the Correctional Services of Canada and the Medicine Hat Police Service as untreated.”
In 2007, Delmas was sentenced to 28 months in prison after convicted of assaulting an intoxicated woman in the downtown underpass between S. and N. Railway streets.
In that case, court heard testimony that the two were kissing when Delmas pulled the women’s pants down, pushed her to the ground and then forcibly penetrated her despite her protest.
In April 2015, Delmas pled guilty to the most recent set of charges, against the advice of duty counsel at the time, then later sought to change his plea in June 2016 when prosecutors announced they would seek dangerous offender status. The Alberta Court of Appeal rejected that appeal.
If a dangerous offender designation is granted, the court can impose an indeterminate sentence with no chance of parole for seven years, a regular sentence with an additional long-term supervision order or simply a regular sentence.
