Warning: Some may find the details in this story disturbing
A Dangerous Offender hearing has been set for February 2021, in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench for a man convicted of attempted murder and charged with sexual assault, and choking to overcome resistance in two separate incidents.
In July Justice Grant Currie granted the Crown’s application to hold a Dangerous Offender hearing on Cory Smockum, 38.
Smockum was found guilty in February 2020 of attempted murder after a five-day trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. The charges are a result of an incident Oct. 14, 2018, near Hanley. The court heard that Smockum sexually and physically assaulted his former girlfriend in a garage and threated to kill “everyone he could that night.”
The victim told the court that the assault happened after the two went to a sled rally in Hanley. She said he kicked the garage door open, got on top of her and, using his fist and elbow, punched her continuously in the face. She said he called her derogatory names and threatened her life saying she would end up like her friend Ashley Morin, 31, who was last seen in North Battleford July 2018. The RCMP is investigating Morin’s disappearance as a homicide.
The victim told the court that when Smockum attacked her at one point she lost consciousness and when she came to she was in a different spot in the garage. She said she was choked unconscious three times and during the third time “everything went warm,” her vision went and she “made peace with dying that night.”
The court heard that Smockum then took her on a quad but later rolled the quad and he was injured. The victim used this opportunity to flee and hid in a grain elevator. Police found her there early the next morning.
The victim spent six days in a Saskatoon hospital with broken ribs, a brain bleed, damage to her knees and stiches on her lip. She also had black eyes, ear damage, and a cut on the side of her head and bruising.
Smockum was also charged with aggravated sexual assault and choking to overcome resistance. A mistrial was declared on those charges during the February 2020 trial after there was a hung jury. In June 2020, however, the Saskatoon Prosecutions Office said they would retry Smockum on the sexual assault charges.
During Smockum’s 2020 trial, the court heard that he had a 2016 conviction after being arrested in 2015 by North Battleford RCMP. He was charged with sexual assault, assault and choking to overcome resistance. The choking charge was dropped and the assault and sexual assault charges were changed to assault causing bodily harm and sexual assault causing bodily harm, respectively. Smockum was found guilty in 2016 of assault causing bodily harm. He was found not guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm.
Sentencing of Smockum on the 2020 conviction is postponed until the courts decide whether or not to designate him as a dangerous offender. If Smockum is found to be a Dangerous Offender the sentence can be an indefinite prison term. In addition, Dangerous Offenders are subject to lengthy supervision orders.
He remains in custody and appeared by telephone in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench Oct. 13.
-ljoy@glaciermedia.ca
