CITATION: R. v. McGraw, 2011 ONCA 451

DATE: 20110614

DOCKET: C51724

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

Laskin, Gillese and Karakatsanis JJ.A.

BETWEEN

Her Majesty the Queen

Respondent

and

Paul McGraw

Appellant

Edward L. Greenspan, Q.C., for the appellant

Lorna Bolton, for the respondent

Considered in writing: June 8, 2011

On appeal from the sentence imposed on June 11, 2009, by Justice Herold of the Superior Court of Justice.

ENDORSEMENT

[1] The appellant committed a series of violent offences against eight different victims between February 2007 and September 2008. After a series of judicial pre-trial conferences, the appellant entered guilty pleas. On sentencing, defence counsel presented a joint submission. Herold J. accepted the joint submission and imposed a 14 year sentence.

[2] The appellant now seeks to challenge the sentence, arguing that it is harsh and excessive. He makes no allegation of incompetence of counsel.

[3] We would grant leave to appeal sentence but dismiss the appeal.

[4] While the reasons for sentence are extremely brief, it is clear why Mr. McGraw received the sentence that he did. He was an admitted crack cocaine dealer with a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for assaults and weapons, who committed a series of violent offences on a number of different victims in a relatively short period of time. Apart from the number of victims and offences, there were a number of aggravating factors, including: the viciousness of the assaults; the duration of the offences committed against E.K. and the elements of gratuitous degradation associated with that attack; the appellant’s repeated attempts to obstruct the course of justice by trying to dissuade a victim from testifying against him and when that failed, attempting to have another inmate assault the victim; and, in one of the attacks, the appellant used a weapon.

[5] The trial judge was bound to accept the joint submission unless the proposed sentence was contrary to the public interest and would bring the administration of justice into disrepute: see R. v. Dorsey, 1999 3759 (ON CA), [1999] O.J. No. 2957, at para. 11 (C.A.). There was a thorough Gladue report before the court, which sets out the appellant’s tragic and difficult life. The sentencing judge took the contents of the report into consideration, including through his recommendation that the appellant be transferred to a correctional facility in Nova Scotia.

[6] Clearly the sentencing judge found the sentence to be fit. We agree.

“J. I. Laskin J.A.”

“E. E. Gillese J.A.”

“Karakatsanis J.A.”