Warning: This story contains graphic details of a sexual assault.
A Vancouver Island man has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman while she slept on a couch in his partner’s living room.
Wayne Michael Dick was convicted by a jury in October 2024 of one count of sexual assault related to an incident on Jan. 27, 2023, when he was drinking with his partner and his partner’s friend.
The friend, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, met up with Dick’s partner in downtown Victoria, where the two had some drinks, according to a sentencing decision released recently.
The pair then took a bus to Dick’s partner’s home, where they continued to drink.
At some point, Dick, who was 39 at the time, joined them. He was aware the 24-year-old woman was “very intoxicated,” said B.C. Supreme Court Justice Andrew Majawa.
Dick had also been drinking but was not showing the same level of intoxication as the woman, who eventually went to sleep on a couch in the living room, while Dick and the partner went to a bedroom.
Later that night, the woman awoke on the couch with Dick on top of her. Her sweatpants were around her ankles, and Dick was penetrating her vaginally.
“[She] was scared. She told him to stop, but he did not. Mr. Dick put his hand over her mouth and told her to “shut the fuck up.” She went silent,” Majawa said in his decision.
Dick also penetrated the woman’s anus, causing her a lot of pain. Eventually, he stopped and left the room.
The woman tried messaging her friend but got no response. She began drinking leftover drinks from the night before and called a crisis line.
She met with police outside the home and was taken to hospital, where a forensic nurse examiner observed blunt force injuries to her vaginal and anal regions.
In a victim impact statement, the woman described “long-lasting effects and devastating consequences” of the assault, saying she no longer feels safe and has experienced suicidal ideation, at one point ending up involuntarily committed to hospital for several weeks.
“Many simple pleasures are gone and she describes being withdrawn from the world,” Majawa said.
The woman dropped out of college and experiences anxiety that impedes her ability to set goals and make plans, she said.
“I have no doubt that enduring the traumatizing experience of being sexually assaulted by Mr. Dick has significantly and negatively impacted almost every aspect of her life,” Majawa said.
Dick has a previous conviction for sexual assault in 2003, as well as several other convictions, including assaulting an intimate partner and spitting on and obstructing a police officer.
Many of the convictions involve Dick consuming alcohol, and he has struggled with alcohol abuse, Majawa said.
A Gladue report, which is prepared for Indigenous offenders to provide context about how systemic issues have affected them, shows Dick’s life has been affected by many adverse factors present in the lives of Indigenous people.
“In Mr. Dick’s case, these factors are particularly striking and can be quite appropriately described as heartbreaking,” Majawa said.
His mother was a victim of the Sixties Scoop, and he has multiple family members who attended residential and day schools.
Dick, a status member of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, has been affected by generational cycles of addiction and substance use, and began consuming alcohol at around the age of seven. He was the victim of sexual abuse throughout much of his childhood by members of his community.
A forensic psychiatrist determined Dick’s level of risk is relatively low in the short term if he remains sober, but he represents a moderate to high risk in the long term, which is particularly magnified if he relapses.
Crown had asked for a four- or five-year sentence, while the defence argued a conditional sentence order of just under two years was appropriate.
Majawa called Dick’s assault “highly invasive, violating and extremely demeaning,” noting he took advantage of a sleeping woman and persisted with the assault when she woke up, covering her mouth and telling her to shut up.
With credit for time served in custody prior to sentencing, Dick’s sentence of 3 1/2 years is reduced to two years and 5 1/2 months.
Dick would be automatically subject to the sex offender registry, but he has challenged the constitutionality of provisions in the Criminal Code related to the registry. His application is expected to be heard at a future date.
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