Rapist considered dangerous offender in Canada

Michele Henry Crime Reporter Toronto Star

The sister of a man declared a dangerous offender yesterday has a different view of the person who committed a long list of crimes that include raping a 15-year-old girl, crushing a woman's nose and stabbing a cab driver. She says her brother is treatable and "fixable."

Bette Pilgrim said the justice system has failed Jason John Wayne Pilgrim, 33, because such a designation means that he will probably never get the treatment he needs. "I feel the judge took away something," she said, outside a University Ave. courthouse. "I believe my brother is fixable. The judge was unfair."

Pilgrim, a designated psychopath with dark, slicked-back hair that covers a Maple Leaf tattoo on his head, stared at his sister and mother after Justice Denise Bellamy sentenced him to an indeterminate period of imprisonment.

"This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make," Bellamy said.
"It's not to punish him. ... But to protect the public ... from his future violence."

Calling him "extraordinarily" dangerous, Bellamy wrote in her 43-page judgment that she does not believe Pilgrim can be rehabilitated. Pilgrim's list of convictions extends back 20 years and includes violent robberies, break and enters, drug possession, sexual assault, and numerous other assaults against inmates, his spouse, a subsequent girlfriend and a taxi driver.

Christopher Avery, Pilgrim's defence lawyer, said yesterday that with this designation the court has deemed his client a write-off. Instead, he should be declared a long-term offender, Avery said, which would have kept Pilgrim in custody and under the control of Corrections Canada for up to 25 years. With a release date in sight, Avery said, his client would have gotten treatment, such as anger management, which he has never received.

Dangerous offenders and others serving life sentences are the lowest priority for treatment programs, Avery said.

One of 14 siblings – some have died and the remaining have criminal records – Pilgrim had a troubled childhood. With a father who allegedly sexually abused four of his seven sisters, he also witnessed his older brother sexually assault another sibling. Pilgrim may himself have been the victim of such abuse.

After the proceedings yesterday, Bette and mother Sadie Pilgrim, 72, paced outside the courtroom until they met with Pilgrim briefly.

"He's my brother and I love him," Bette said.