Adam Budgell sent back to Ontario to face sexual assault charges
Ryan Cooke | CBC News | Posted: March 20, 2019 1:24 PM | Last Updated: March 20, 2019
Repeated domestic abuser slated for bail hearing in St. Catharines, Ont.
Niagara Regional Police have made good on a promise to transfer a wanted man sitting in a Newfoundland jail back to Ontario.
Adam Budgell made a brief court appearance in St. Catherines on Wednesday morning. He is facing charges of sexual assault, forcible confinement, assault and choking. He told the judge he was trying to find a lawyer and a bail hearing was set for March 27.
His transfer from N.L. to Ontario comes one week after CBC News published a story with the alleged victim in the sexual assault, who was concerned Budgell would be allowed to leave the jail in Bishop's Falls, N.L., at the end of his sentence.
He had been serving time in Newfoundland for a separate assault on another former romantic partner, which predates the charges in Ontario.
Budgell has a lengthy criminal record, filled with assaults against women.
It's alleged he punched and choked a woman at her home in Welland, Ont., last October before raping her.
Budgell left the scene before police arrived, and wasn't picked up until three months later in his hometown of Bishop's Falls, where there was a prior warrant for his arrest.