Teskey guilty of aggravated assault in retrial

A provincial court judge found Leo Teskey guilty on Friday of aggravated assault for beating Dougald Miller in 2000 so savagely he has been bedridden for seven years and able to communicate only by blinking.

Originally convicted in 2002, Teskey, now 37, had the verdict set aside by the Supreme Court because the first judge took too long to issue his written reasons.

Lesley Miller, who has cared for her husband since his beating, sat gripping the courtroom bench as the verdict was read by Judge Eric Peterson.

"Please find him guilty. I was praying. I've been doing a lot of praying," she said outside the courthouse. "I said thank you God. He said the words I wanted to hear."

During Teskey's second trial, held in December, Miller wheeled her husband's hospital bed into court, calling it "the only victim impact statement he could make."

She would now be able to visit her husband and tell him Leo Teskey will remain behind bars, she said.

Outcome 'a tragedy'

"I can't be happy at the outcome," Crown Prosecutor Kevin Mott said. "Even when you look at Mr. Teskey, it's a tragedy that this happened and that his life has been such that it led to this."

Teskey has been sent for a psychiatric assessment because the Crown intends to ask the court to have Teskey declared a dangerous offender and kept in prison indefinitely, Mott said.

Teskey was declared a dangerous offender in 2005 after his first conviction for assaulting Miller but that status was revoked after the Supreme Court ordered a new trial.

In his decision at the time, Judge Brad Kerby considered Teskey's 34 convictions — including shooting a police officer in the head.

"I find Mr. Teskey's treatability does not exist in the realm of pragmatic possibility," the judge said.