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A man found guilty of multiple heinous crimes against a Hamilton sex worker was recently tagged as a dangerous offender.
Peter Pasco was sentenced on July 3 of this year to an indefinite sentence because of the dangerous offender designation.
Crown attorneys can seek that specific designation if they can prove there is a high risk the criminal will commit violent or sexual offences in the future. The designation carries an automatic sentence of imprisonment for an indeterminate period, with no chance of parole for seven years.
Pasco’s most recent attack took place in a sex worker’s apartment near Gage Park in Hamilton back in October of 2021.
On Oct. 5, just after 5 p.m., officers responded to reports of a sexual assault of a woman in her 40s. The name of the sex worker was withheld during the court case.
Court findings say Pasco paid the sex worker $120 for a one-hour session. Afterwards, Pasco then instructed her to lie on the bed to cuddle and that is when he attacked her.
Pasco lay behind her and then suddenly and forcibly embraced her, restraining her arms and legs and strangling her with his hands. She managed to push off the mattress and fell face first onto the floor. Pasco continued to strangle her until she blacked out.
When she regained consciousness, she was lying on the floor, disoriented, with her face covered in blood. Nothing in the apartment was stolen, except for the $120 he paid for the session.
After the verdict by Ontario Superior Court Justice John Krawchenko in August 2024, Crown attorney Heather Palin said she’ll argue during sentencing that Pasco should be designated a dangerous offender.
Supervised release
A dangerous offender is getting his chance at a supervised release.
Robert Francis Richards, who was serving a sentence for attempting to murder women in Orangeville and Etobicoke, has been granted day parole by the Parole Board of Canada.
The board granted Richards six months of day parole at a residential facility. The board did not specify the location of the facility. Some of the conditions imposed on Richards include no consumption of alcohol and no contact with his victims. He also must report all relationships with females to a parole supervisor and follow a treatment plan in the area of violence.
Richards pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges for a May 28, 2009 attack on 26-year-old Etobicoke flower shop owner Veronica Kazmierczak.
Richards choked Kazmierczak with a computer cable, punched her almost to unconsciousness and stabbed her neck and face before she escaped out the back door of the store on The Queensway.
Approximately six weeks later, he attacked an Orangeville mother of three, leaving her for dead in a clothing store. Richards choked her and knifed the part-time clerk up to 31 times.
Richards was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to an indeterminate period in custody in 2014.
An decade behind bars
A Peterborough sexual offender gets an additional 10 years behind bars.
Ioannis Paligiannis, who is currently incarcerated at the Warkworth Institution in Campbellford, Ont., for several sex crimes, was given an additional 10 years after a federal judge recently tagged him with the dangerous offender designation.
Paligiannis pled guilty to sexual assault, sexual interference, making sexually explicit material available to a minor and unsupervised contact with a minor, contrary to a Sex Offender
Paligiannis pleaded guilty to sexual assault, sexual interference, making sexually explicit material available to a minor and having unsupervised contact with a minor, contrary to a Sex Offender Information Registration Act order. The offences were committed against a male high school student in 2016. He was convicted of his crimes in May and July of 2023.
The Crown sought a dangerous offender designation for the 35-year-old Paligiannis back in July.
Superior Court of Justice Catriona Verner outlined her reasoning for the decision.
“After considering all the relevant factors, I find that Mr. Paligiannis requires another 10 years in custody to ensure that he does not destroy another young boy’s life. I therefore sentence him to a sentence of 10 years in addition to the actual time of one year and eight months spent in pretrial custody.”
His rap sheet dates to May of 2013 when police said they found him in a car with an undressed 13-year-old boy at a public park in Peterborough. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching under 16 years of age, luring a person under 16, making sexually explicit material available to a person under 16 and failing to comply with his bail conditions.
— With files from the Toronto Sun
ganderson@postmedia.com