WINNIPEG – A man convicted in the freezing death of a 13-year-old girl more than two decades ago will have to serve 25 years before he’s eligible for parole.
Mark Edward Grant was found guilty earlier this year of the second-degree murder of Candace Derksen and got an automatic life sentence.
But Chief Justice Glenn Joyal had to determine when Grant would be allowed to apply for parole. The minimum was 10 years.
Attorney Brian Bell said during sentencing arguments Thursday that Grant has spent nearly half his life behind bars for 23 offences and hasn’t shown any improvement despite taking "almost every program offered" by the correctional system.
But the defence argued Grant is a product of a tortured upbringing and should be able to apply for parole after 12 to 14 years.
Grant’s lawyer Saul Simmonds suggested his client’s childhood must be taken into account.
"He has no one," Simmonds said. "He was abandoned by his mother … He was left to his own devices."
His father was "abusive – sexually, physically, emotionally."
Derksen disappeared while walking home from school in November 1984. Her body was found weeks later, bound and frozen, in a storage shed not far from her Winnipeg home.
Grant’s background is no excuse, Bell said.
"We have to deal with Mr. Grant as he is."
Quoting from a decade of psychological assessments and parole reports, Bell said Grant has a long history of violence and sexual deviance, and still poses a risk to society.
"He says all women are the same and deserve to be treated like dirt," Bell said. "There can’t be much doubt that any remorse he felt was fleeting."
Grant has schizophrenia but often refused to take medication because it interfered with his sexual function, Bell said.
Grant also believed he was "the devil" and heard voices at night, according to a 2002 psychological report.
"He has demonstrated limited insight into his responsibility for his criminal behaviour," Bell said reading from a 2004 correctional report.
After he was last released from jail, Grant participated in treatment but slowly withdrew from counselling, Bell said. According to a 2006 psychological assessment, Bell said Grant admitted to "stalking" a woman who waited at the same bus stop every morning.
Simmonds pointed out that Grant was only 15 when he was sent by children’s services to be treated in Florida, where he was subjected to further sexual abuse and became "even more injured."
Grant ended up living on the streets and in "holes in the ground," said the defence lawyer, who added that some of Grant’s behaviour could be expected from someone who was "so tortured."
Simmonds said Grant has participated in a raft of treatment since his most recent incarceration and has shown improvement.
"He continues to do everything he can during the time these options were given to him," Simmonds told the judge.
Grant declined to say anything Thursday when given a chance by the judge.
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