A prosecution witness has testified that she is afraid of a Red Deer man convicted of sexually assaulting an elderly woman in Red Deer in the summer of 2009.
Jesse Peter Toews, 27, was convicted on Jan. 21, 2011, for his attack on a 77-year-old woman while she walked on a secluded path in the Red Deer subdivision of Glendale on July 29, 2009.
Toews is now in the second week of a sentencing hearing before Justice Monica Bast in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench. The court will determine whether he should be declared a dangerous offender.
The only witness to testify on Tuesday, 22-year-old Haley Nicole Bigney, said she first met Toews in 2005. At the time, he was seeing and spending most nights with a woman who lived in the opposite side of a duplex occupied by two of his friends and their mother. Bigney later established a relationship with one of the friends and moved into the duplex with him and his family.
Bigney told the court that she and her boyfriend often spent time with Toews and his girlfriend in either of the two homes, watching television and smoking “weed.”
Toews’ behaviour was similar to that of someone with bipolar syndrome, she said, explaining that she is familiar with the symptoms because she knows another person who takes treatment for the disorder.
Toews seemed to lose his temper without provocation, she said.
“If he got mad, he would always ending up hurting somebody,” she said under examination by Crown prosecutor Charlotte Oxford.
She said he would always apologize later, but she doesn’t believe that he was sincere.
A second witness scheduled to testify on Tuesday was not called to the stand after Crown prosecutors Anders Quist and Charlotte Oxford determined that her testimony would be more suited to the defence.
The witness was ordered to be available at a later date for Toews’ lawyer, Arnold Piragoff.
The sentence hearing is scheduled for five weeks.
Toews remains in custody pending the outcome of his hearing.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com