Man who slit worker's throat declared dangerous offender

A Nova Scotia man who raped and slashed the throat of a Dartmouth gas station clerk in 2007 has been declared a dangerous offender and will be locked up indefinitely in a federal penitentiary.

Michael Derrick Robicheau, 38, did not oppose the Crown's application to have him declared a dangerous offender. He was sentenced Tuesday in Dartmouth provincial court on charges of attempted murder, sexual assault with a weapon, robbery and unlawful confinement.

"It's a decision that was a long time coming. We've been about six years and some media reports have likened this case to the poster child of delay in the courts but in fact, we went slowly in this case because it was a very important case to go slowly on," said Eric Taylor, the Crown prosecutor.

"There are a lot of complications involved and better to go slowly and to get it right than to try to rush it through to get an easy answer."

On Aug. 21, 2007, Robicheau brutally attacked a clerk who was working the night shift alone at an Ultramar station on Portland Street. Less than two weeks earlier, Robicheau had been released from prison and placed at a halfway house in Halifax.

Robicheau admitted to cutting off the clothes of the 44-year-old clerk before he sexually assaulted her and slit her throat.

The woman called 911, but was unconscious by the time help arrived.

Halifax Regional Police found Robicheau a short time later in some nearby bushes.

Though Robicheau suffers from schizophrenia and has had psychotic episodes in the past, Judge Alanna Murphy ruled that he knew what he was doing that night and that it was wrong. She said she found no evidence of remorse for his crimes and ruled he is a "substantial risk to re-offend … with no desire to alter his behaviours."

"I think Judge Murphy got it right," Taylor told reporters outside the courtroom on Tuesday.

"She took a long time considering all the evidence, considering all the reports and I think she had no doubt that Mr. Robicheau is one of those rare persons who are considered so dangerous that he should be subject of an indeterminate sentence."

Victim not in court

The victim and her family members were not in court on Tuesday, but in previous victim impact statements she has said she wakes up every morning at 2:30 a.m. — the time of the attack — and relives the horror of the incident. She said she wishes at times that she'd died.

"That statement really speaks about the ongoing turmoil in her life and the life of her husband. The people that they used to be before this incident don't exist anymore," said Taylor.

"They've had to pick up and live a life as best they can and they're going to be stricken by the memories, the images of what happened that night."

As a dangerous offender, Robicheau will serve time in a federal penitentiary until the Parole Board of Canada is convinced he is no longer a risk to the community.

Because Robicheau has been in custody for six years, he has the right to apply for parole in just over a year but Taylor said his release at that point is unlikely.

"There's always the possibility that Mr. Robicheau can be rehabilitated and we hope that he will one day be rehabilitated and no longer be that sort of risk to the community that we see in him right now," he said.

"I'm hopeful with a change of attitude on his part and lots of resources being dedicated to him in the future by psychiatrists and other providers in the correctional facility that he will see his way to becoming a productive member of society in the future."