Calgary, Alberta man's bail hearing on rape charges

(Original Post 5-7-08)
Obsession over a former co-worker led a city man to repeatedly rape her — and possibly contemplate killing her —a prosecutor charged today.

Crown lawyer Pat Yelle said the woman had to flee the man’s northwest Calgary home half naked, with her hands cuffed behind her back, to escape.

But defence lawyer Tonii Roulston said David Michael Gendreau has a right to be presumed innocent and will be taking his case to trial.

“I’m not going to put forward a case, I’ll save that for the trial judge,” Roulston said, at a hearing to determine if Gendreau could be released on bail.

The former supervisor with Canada Post faces charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement in connection with an incident at his Charleswood home on Jan. 31.

Yelle told provincial court Judge Catherine Skene the woman fled Gendreau’s home after being held for nearly six hours and repeatedly raped.

The prosecutor said the woman was only able to escape when Gendreau fell asleep and she was able to loosen a rope he had tide to the handcuffs which bound her wrists behind her back.

The harrowing assault left the victim believing she would be murdered when Gendreau discussed having to go to her home to retrieve a glass which might contain his fingerprints after they had consumed beer there earlier.

“At that point she was terrified he was planning on killing her,” said Yelle.

Gendreau tied a rope to her handcuffs and laid on top of it so he could fall asleep, she said.
The woman, naked from the waist down, was able to escape to a nearby home and call police, who found Gendreau had loaded her abandoned purse and clothing into his car, said Yelle.
Roulston argued it was “sheer speculation” her client considered murdering the woman and argued there were inconstancies in her story.

The lawyer also dismissed suggestions he was obsessed with the victim, noting he has not tried to contact her while in the Calgary Remand Centre since Feb. 1.

Skene will decide this afternoon whether she’s ready to make a decision.

(Update 11-29-09) On December 18, Gendreau will be sentenced for 5 counts of sexual assault after being convicted of sexual assault and unlawful confinement. Justice Scott Brooker ruled that when he attacked his former coworker, that there were five separate sexual assaults in 5 hours, instead of the assault being treated as a single crime. Crown prosecutor Gary Cornfield stated that Gendreau's fantasies about the victim indicate planning of the attack against her.

"I find all five of those assaults took place essentially as described by the complainant," Jutice Brooker said. 

Cornfield wants a prison sentence between 5 and 7 years, a permanent weapons ban, SO registration, a $100 fine, and a DNA requirement imposed on Gendreau at the sentencing. As for Gendreau, he continued to deny his involvement in the assault. "You're going to charge me, convict me, take my DNA, register me as a sex offender and then you want to fine me? For something I didn't do? Are you high?"