SASKATOON – An abduction earlier this year has landed a man a six-year jail term. Clinton McLaughlin, 36, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to kidnapping and aggravated assault.
McLaughlin abducted his ex-fiancée Mariana Cracogna on May 30 and repeatedly beat her until she was able to escape. She was found on the side of Highway 16 east of Saskatoon on June 1 and had no food or water during her ordeal.
“She was beaten. Her eyes were purple. Her face was cut. Her teeth were chipped from him hitting her so hard,” Jasmine Clarke told Global News in June. Clarke and her boyfriend found Cracogna crouching in a ditch by the highway.
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Judge Barry Morgan, in handing down the sentence which also included an attack on an ex-girlfriend, called McLaughlin’s history of violence “horrifying.” That attitude was echoed by the Crown outside of court.
“These were acts that, as the judge phrased it, showed a prehistoric attitude towards women, a person whose attitudes around relationships were out of step with society,” said Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss.
“His behaviour has been extremely scarring to these women.”
McLaughlin will serve just over five year because of time already served.
With files from Amber Rockliffe
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