A man convicted for killing his girlfriend in 2002 has been handed a life sentence.
Stephane Parent will not be eligible for parole for 17 years.
Parent was found guilty of second-degree murder last October in the death Adrienne McColl.
She was just 21 years old when her body was found in a ditch near Nanton on Feb. 17, 2002, after she went missing on Valentine’s Day.
McColl had been strangled and beaten to death.
Senior prosecutor Shane Parker said justice C.S. Anderson’s decision weighed past decisions on domestic homicides Parker characterized as “stern and firm.”
“Adrienne was attacked by someone who should have been protecting her, and she was attacked in a place that she should have felt safe, her home,” he said Friday. “When that doesn’t occur and you die at the hands of your partner, the courts will treat it very seriously and they have here.”
Parker said the sentence isn’t likely to provide emotional closure to McColl’s friends and family.
“I think it is a chance at least where we can say we’ve held someone accountable for your loved one’s death and that’s all the justice system can do is to hold people accountable,” he told Global News Friday.
Parker said the distance between where McColl was found dead and where he believes she was killed – in her Calgary home – and the amount of time between her death and Parent’s arrest were complicating factors in the trial.
Parent was arrested and charged 16 years to the day her body was found, thanks to advancements in forensic technology which allowed police to discover new evidence in the cold case.
Sentencing had originally been scheduled for Nov. 29, 2021, but was adjourned to Friday.
Parent did not have a defense lawyer present and didn’t submit a suggested sentence, but shook his head as the decision came down.
When asked if he had any objection to the Crown’s written submission, Parent continued to defend himself, saying he was not guilty.
He was also handed a lifetime firearms ban.
Comments