N.S. sexual predator declared dangerous offender

A Nova Scotia court has ruled that convicted sex offender William Shrubsall must be locked up indefinitely.

The 30-year-old former Niagara Falls, N.Y., resident was sentenced for attacks on two Halifax women in 1998 after a brutal beating that left a store clerk in a coma and an aggravated sexual assault on a university student.

He was also convicted of sexually assaulting, choking and confining another woman that year.

Declaring Shrubsall a dangerous offender, Justice Felix Cacchione of Nova Scotia's Supreme Court said he was convinced that if Shrubsall were on the street that women would continue to be attacked or killed.

He said Shrubsall is at such a high risk of reoffending that community supervision wouldn't work. Shrubsall has "a callous disregard for life and the safety of others," said Cacchione.

Cacchione described Shrubsall as an intelligent man but one with major personality disorders.

Shrubsall arrived in Halifax in 1996, after escaping from the United States where he was being tried for a sexual abuse case involving a 17-year-old girl. He was convicted of the crime in absentia.

In 1988, Shrubsall killed his mother with a baseball bat. He was 17 at the time.

More than 85 witnesses testified at the hearing over the past eight months.