EDMONTON — A judge in Edmonton has declared a 60-year-old career criminal whose violent attacks go back decades a dangerous offender.
That means Lance Blanchard will spend an indeterminate time in prison and may never be released.
Blanchard was convicted in 2016 of sexually assaulting an Indigenous woman who was jailed to ensure her testimony.
She was also made to ride on at least one occasion in the same van taking her accuser to the courthouse.
One of Blanchard’s early victims from the 1970s was allowed to give a last-minute victim impact statement before Justice Eric Macklin’s decision.
The man, who was 10 when he was beaten and sexually assaulted in a downtown hotel, testified his life changed dramatically after the attack in 1978.
“I believed Mr. Blanchard was coming back to kill me,” he testified in court. “I feared all adult males.
“This was supposed to be a happy time for me.”