Woman stabs cheating lover in the groin

Mandatory minimums for violent crimes may be needed to improve system:Tories

at 18:52 on August 30, 2005, EST.
AMY CARMICHAEL

VANCOUVER (CP) - Cutting a woman off e-mail and ordering her to serve two years of house arrest for fatally stabbing her cheating lover in the groin suggests there is a need for mandatory minimum jail sentences for violent crimes, says the Conservative justice critic.

MP Vic Toews said the punishment handed to Teresa Senner for the manslaughter of her lover sends out the wrong message.

"I think that the taking of another person's life through a criminal act . . . that needs to be punishable by a prison sentence that communicates denunciation and deterrence," he said Tuesday in an interview.

Senner, 43, was sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest in the central B.C. city of Prince George, B.C., earlier this week for killing Norman Wicks, 50, a school principal in nearby Vanderhoof.

She said the single, fatal stab wound she inflicted on Wicks was an accident and that she was trying to move a knife out of the way when the two were struggling.

But court also heard the fight exploded when Senner learned her lover had no plans to leave his wife for her and that he was having simultaneous affairs with two other women.

Justice Glen Parrett of B.C. Supreme Court said he wrestled with the decision on how to sentence Senner because the range available to him was so wide.

"I literally have the potential to impose a suspended sentence, a conditional sentence or a life sentence," he told court.

"Here's my difficulty," Parrett said. "The jury rejected her version of why she picked up the knife. . . . That has potentially serious implications."

He based his decision to sentence her to house arrest on the fact that the jury found she had no formed intent to kill Wicks.

Under the conditional sentence, in use since 1996, Senner will be allowed to live in the community under a curfew. She is also banned from using the Internet and e-mail.

Toews wants the federal government to change the legislation on conditional sentencing and stop judges from handing them out for violent crimes.

But the government is showing no movement towards such changes, the Manitoba MP said, and the Tories might have to start demanding the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences for crimes like manslaughter.

The party lobbied for and won mandatory jail time for child pornography offences in 2004, but the move was symbolic more than anything. The minimum sentence allowed for perpetrators of child porn offences was set at a week to 14 days.

He said the Tories may have no choice but to go the same route to toughen sentences for violent crimes.

"Given the failure of the Liberal government to move on this issue, despite the fact that they have been saying they would, I am very skeptical," Toews added. "I think, quite frankly, the only way we're going to move to eliminate these kind of conditional sentences for serious violent offences, given the present government's attitudes, is through the imposition of mandatory minimums."

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler has said he personally is against that punishment model, pointing out that it hasn't worked in the United States.

But after a recent speech to the Canadian Bar Association in Vancouver he said he planned to introduce reforms eliminating conditional sentences for violent crimes.

The Crown in the Senner case said the woman should be given up to four years in jail.

Canada has preferred to impose mandatory minimums as little as possible because the government wants judges to have the freedom to take contributing factors into account.

"The preferred approach is to provide the courts with the discretion to craft sentences appropriate to the gravity of the offence and to take into account aggravating and mitigating factors," said Justice Ministry spokesman Christian Girouard.

A jury found Senner guilty of manslaughter earlier this year. At trial, Senner testified she had attempted to remove a sharp kitchen knife from the path of her struggle with Wicks. She said it inadvertently cut Wicks.

On the day of his death, Wicks and Senner exchanged e-mails and phone calls that Senner confirmed built up the emotional tension between them.

She had also found e-mails on Wick's computer detailing a sexual relationship he had with one of her colleagues.

Senner said she told Wicks on the phone that day she didn't trust his intentions for their relationship.

It grew worse when she learned of a house-warming party some colleagues were throwing for Wicks. She asked him if his supposedly estranged common-law wife would be coming.

When he answered yes, Senner said she became even more incensed.

The prosecution focused on e-mails from Senner that showed her agitation.

"I hate you more than I thought possible," said one e-mail. "This is the last (expletive) straw," said a second.

The Crown has 30 days to appeal the sentence. Spokesman Stan Lowe said it's too early to comment on whether prosecutors will pursue a stiffer sentence for Senner.

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