Sentence for 2019 sex assault more than tripled on appeal

After a conviction and sentencing in provincial court, a Court of Appeals judge has more than tripled the original sentence for a 2019 sexual assault in Prince Albert.

Wade Merasty was found guilty in the sexual assault of an acquaintance. According to court documents, they were at a home and had gone to sleep in the same room, then the victim woke up to having been undressed below the waist and Merasty trying to rape her. When she pushed him away and said no, he stopped.

Merasty was originally sentenced to six months in jail with a year’s probation to start after that. He was also ordered to abide by the sex offender registry for 10 years.

Merasty appealed the conviction but was unsuccessful. The Crown appealed the sentence and had the opposite outcome.

The Court of Appeal justice who wrote the decision, Justice Robert W. Leurer, found the original sentencing judge had committed three errors: He found the assault wasn’t a major sexual assault and considered it a mitigating factor, he considered the crime to not have involved violence, and he didn’t give “primary consideration” to denunciation and deterrence in this case.

Two other justices concurred with Leurer’s written reasons.

Leurer wrote the determination of the assault to not be a “major” sexual assault is more a categorization tool used in sentencing. And while in the court documents there appeared to be some disagreement that the original judge’s reasoning was solid, Leurer said that just because it isn’t a major assault isn’t a mitigating factor that would lessen a sentence; it’s merely a lack of an aggravating factor in sentencing determination.

Leurer also disagreed with the decision that the assault didn’t involve violence.

“While Mr. Merasty’s assault may not have left the complainant physically bruised and broken, (the sentencing judge) found as fact that (the victim) experienced significant emotional and psychological trauma as a result,” wrote Leurer.

Leurer also cited R v Bear: “ ‘By definition, (sexual assault) is an inherently violent offence; it involves an assault that violates the victim’s sexual integrity’ (at para 121). No matter what form it takes, a sexual assault is a forceful subjection of the victim to their assailant’s sexual desires.”

In the third error, Leurer said the sentencing judge had properly identified that the victim trusted Merasty enough to sleep in the same room with him and he took advantage of that vulnerability. But the judge didn’t give enough consideration to the objectives of denunciation and deterrence of such actions in sentencing.

The Court of Appeal justice also found the sentencing judge improperly sentenced Merasty to 10 years compliance with the sex offender registry when it should have been 20 years.

As a result, Leurer upped Merasty’s sentence to 20 months in jail, with a year’s probation afterwards, and 20 years compliance with the sex offender registry.