Former boyfriend of Cortney Lake admits he picked her up the day she disappeared

The former boyfriend of Cortney Lake has admitted to picking her up in his black GMC Sierra truck on the evening she went missing.

Lake, 24, was last seen on June 7.

In provincial court Wednesday morning in St. John's — in an agreed statement of facts — Philip Smith admitted he called Lake twice on the evening of June 7. 

Smith appeared by video from Her Majesty's Penitentiary.

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Smith, 25, said he picked Lake up in his truck later that evening on Michener Avenue in Mount Pearl.

He pleaded guilty to having contact with Lake while being prohibited from doing so in a probation order. 

That order was issued when Smith was in court earlier on June 7. 

Smith was put on probation that day because he had assaulted Lake on April 15. He was also convicted on June 7 of violating an existing order to have no contact with Lake or her mother.

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As well on Wednesday, Smith pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified on June 7, and to drinking while prohibited on June 27.

Police observed Smith drinking at Jack Astor's restaurant on Harbour Drive in St. John's on the evening of June 27, and later saw him buying beer at Antle's Irving on Torbay Road. 

He was arrested shortly after, and has been in custody ever since.

Judge James Walsh said it's clear Smith has "a callous disregard for court orders" given that he contacted Lake the very day he had again been prohibited from doing so, and drove and drank when he had been ordered not to. 

In a plea bargain worked out between the Crown and defence, Smith was sentenced to 90 days in prison. 

With credit for time served, he has 24 days left in his sentence. 

Walsh said he would likely have given Smith more time, but the sentence put forward by the Crown and defence was within the range and he was bound to go along with it. 

Initially when Lake disappeared, police treated it as a missing person's case. It is now being handled as a homicide investigation, and the search for her body continues.