Could courts have prevented disturbing sex case?
Posted Sep 28, 2012 05:38:03 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A sexual assault support centre suggests a disturbing case of sexual assault could have been prevented had one of the suspects remained in custody on previous charges.
RCMP are hunting for David James Leblanc, 47, and Wayne Alan Cunningham, 31, after a 16-year-old boy escaped a Lunenburg county home in chains this week. The two are charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement.
Avalon Sexual Assault Centre points out Leblanc has a long list of convictions and is currently awaiting trial on charges of sexual assault and making and distributing child pornography, involving children aged two and five.
“I’m wondering whether or not if he had stricter conditions, whether this crime could have been prevented,” executive director Irene Smith told the Rick Howe Show on Thursday.
The centre said Leblanc has been convicted for assault causing bodily harm, use of false pretenses, theft, break and enter, fraud, forgery, possession of stolen property, impersonation and failing to appear in federal court.
“I’m so concerned with the process we currently have in place in terms of determining whether somebody should be remanded or whether somebody should be released to the community,” said Smith.
