BRITISH COLUMBIA
Supreme Court

BRITISH COLUMBIA - Supreme Court: R. v. J.N.J. [2004] B.C.J. No. 1710  BCSC 1007

FACTS:  J.N.J. was found guilty of three accounts of sexual assault.  Additionally, he was declared a dangerous offender, and was sentenced to be detained for an indeterminate period of time.  This decision was appealed on the basis of a previous judgment (R. v. Johnson [2003] 2 S.C.R. 357).  J.N.J. exhibited numerous mental problems including paranoid schizophrenia, mixed personality, alcohol abuse, and FAS. Dr. Allan Posthuma diagnosed the latter condition.  Additionally, J.N.J. possessed an extensive criminal record that included numerous accounts of sexual assault.  Psychologist Dr. David Lawson assessed J.N.J. and concluded that the appellant fell in the upper to moderate range of the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R).  Moreover, Dr. Lawson administered the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool Revised (MnSOST-R), the Static-99, and the Sexual Violent Risk-20 (SVR-20), measures designed to predict sexual recidivism among sexual offenders.  The findings suggested that J.N.J. was at a high risk of sexual recidivism.  However, Dr. Lawson cautioned the court that these psychometric tools would be insensitive to the improvements that J.N.J. had recently made while participating in a program for sexual offenders. Psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Noone also assessed J.N.J and supported Dr. Lawson's findings.

HELD:  In light of the evidence presented in this case, J.N.J was declared to be a long-term, but not dangerous, offender.  A new sentence was imposed.  Instead of being incarcerated for an indeterminate period of time, J.N.J was sentenced to serve two years in prison, plus time-served.  Following the imprisonment, a community supervision order of ten years would be placed into effect. J.N.J. was deemed to require community supervision and assistance as a result of his numerous psychological disorders.