Woman subjected to increasing levels of violence in May and October 2023
Brutal and prolonged assaults on his girlfriend on two separate occasions has landed a homeless Calgary man a four-year prison term.
And the lawyer for Kirk Stephen Todd said Friday his client ended up living on the street following the cancer death of his mother in 2021 and his introduction to methamphetamine.
Defence counsel James Wyman told Justice Anne Brown his client had escaped the “party lifestyle” he fell into in his younger adult days but “everything went off the rails” after he began doing meth.
“That was something he found dulled the pain,” Wyman said of Todd’s drug use.
Todd, 42, pleaded guilty to six charges, including aggravated assault, choking and two of unlawful confinement involving incidents in May and October of last year.
Reading from a statement of agreed facts, Crown prosecutor Donna Spaner detailed two separate prolonged assaults Todd committed on his victim, whom she identified by the initials C.P.
In the first incident the couple was living in a storage container in an industrial area in southeast Calgary.
On May 10, 2023, Todd became enraged at C.P., accusing her of being responsible for him losing his job.
“Over approximately the next eight hours Todd beat C.P. with his fists and with a belt. He stabbed her with a kitchen fork, puncturing her skin,” Spaner said.
The woman was able to escape during the early morning hours after he fell asleep, the prosecutor said.
Despite a court order that he have no contact with her, Todd began seeing the victim again last fall and they started living in a tent near the Calgary Zoo.
‘Pattern of increasing violence’
“Shortly after reconciling, Todd began physically confining and abusing C.P.,” Spaner said.
“For the two weeks prior to Oct. 16, 2023, he engaged in a pattern of increasing violence towards her.”
Around 5 p.m. on that date, the victim “tried to run from the tent for help.”
After emerging from the wooded area surrounding their tent, she approached a civilian and said her “boyfriend was going to kill her,” before running to a nearby help line phone to Zoo security.
“Calgary Zoo CCTV, obtained by Calgary police, shows video of Todd dragging C.P. from the help phone location back into the wooded area,” Spaner told Brown.
Despite a large police response, including the HAWCS helicopter, officers were unable to find the victim.
Two days later officers found and approached the tent, speaking to the woman and Todd before he grabbed her and started to flee.
“Approximately 200 metres from the encampment, police watched as Todd threw C.P. to the ground and kept running,” Spaner said.
Todd’s escape included swimming across the river, but he was ultimately arrested.
The victim was transported to hospital in life-threatening condition with injuries including a subdural hematoma and five fractured vertebrae, Spaner said.
Days later she was able to tell police “Todd had choked her to unconsciousness, burned her with a frying pan, hit her multiple times with a metal pipe, dragged her by the neck and the hair, and told her he intended to kill her.”
With credit for remand, time Todd will have about 34½ months left to serve.