Sex offender high-risk to abuse children again without effective treatment: psychiatrist

A forensic psychiatrist says Ethan Fergusson is a high risk to hurt children again unless he gets intensive treatment while in custody.

And even then, Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe says there's no guarantee that the 29-year-old will not act on his dark urges.

That Fergusson is a man who offended against boys places him in the highest risk category to re-offend.

Lohrasbe testified as an expert witness Monday at Fergusson's dangerous offender hearing at Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon.

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Lohrasbe interviewed Fergusson in March at Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford. 

He said that, over the course of the three-hour meeting, Fergusson went from wary to open and spontaneous.

He seemed to appreciate that "his deception and manipulativeness shut doors that people were trying to open for him.

"He grasps that therapy is not going to the doctor and getting pills. It's going to require an enormous amount of work," Lohrasbe said.

He said that Fergusson showed an intellectual awareness that what he did to children was wrong but that he still needs "a gut awareness of how much you can hurt a child.

"It's a lifelong process, gaining insight and then holding it."

Fergusson is characterized as a predatory offender who is not impulsive.

In 2017, Fergusson was serving a sentence in Saskatoon for previous child pornography offences at a reduced-custody facility when new allegations were revealed.  He was immediately transferred back to the Saskatoon Correctional Centre where he was arrested and charged on Sept. 29.

The Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit laid nine new charges against the then-27-year-old.

Lohrasbe said that Fergusson must open fully and embrace treatment or he will not be managed successfully in the community. He said that he needs a "constant inner spotlight on his thoughts, feelings and behaviour."

The goal, Lohrabe said, is to find the "sweet spot" between a prison sentence that allows for intensive treatment but that is not so long that it's demoralizing. He must be able to transfer the coping skills he learns to the community, he said. 

Prosecutor Leslie Dunning wants Fergusson to serve a finite sentence followed by a period of intensive long-term supervision.