Dangerous offender assessment ordered for repeat sex offender Joseph Yaremko

The Crown will decide whether to pursue a dangerous or long-term offender application for convicted sex offender Joseph Simon Peter Yaremko after an assessment is completed.

The assessment, which is done by an expert for possible use in a dangerous offender hearing, was ordered Thursday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench, Crown prosecutor Evan Thompson confirmed.

He said the expert has 60 days to interview Yaremko and write a report, which the Crown will review before deciding if it intends to make an application on Aug. 5.

A dangerous offender application is a sentencing process that seeks to establish whether an offender’s pattern of violent or sexual behaviour poses a risk to the public because it can’t be controlled. The Crown can seek indeterminate or determinate sentences for dangerous offenders, and determinate sentences with a lengthy supervision period for long-term offenders, to protect the public.

Yaremko, 40, was found guilty in December 2021 of sexual assault with a weapon, breaking and entering and forcible confinement in connection with a random home invasion in June 2019.

He was convicted of confining a 21-year-old woman in her Stonebridge neighbourhood condo after knocking on her door and forcing himself inside when she opened it. He raped her, choked her and forced her to use drugs during the prolonged attack, which lasted until she escaped the next day, Justice Naheed Bardai found.

While Yaremko was on remand for the sexual assault, he trapped a female employee in a shoe room at Saskatoon’s Regional Psychiatric Centre and attacked her. The woman told court she believed Yaremko was going to rape her based on a graphic, sexual letter he had just given her. He received a three-year sentence in 2020.

Yaremko is currently on remand at the Regina provincial jail pending his sentencing. He requested to be transferred to a federal facility, alleging he has been repeatedly assaulted, can’t access treatment for his methamphetamine addiction or mental health services for his bipolar disorder, and has been denied his ADHD medication while in jail.

Accused people are held in provincial custody while they await trials and sentencing. Jails are run by the province, while prisons are federally run.

The Correctional Service of Canada opposed the transfer application, which Bardai dismissed in a recently-released court decision.

Based on testimony from CSC employees, he found Yaremko “has simply not established that this is an exceptional case where an order remanding him to federal custody should be granted at this time.”

CSC employees said there is no record of many of Yaremko’s assault claims, which Bardai agreed were exaggerated. Yaremko said he received better addictions and medical treatment during previous federal sentences, but CSC employees said he would not be eligible for most federal programming until he is sentenced. They also said he struggled to integrate due to safety risks while in prison.

“In short, it is clear that there are concerns with respect to Mr. Yaremko’s safety whether he is in provincial or federal custody,” Bardai wrote.

He also found that Yaremko received appropriate psychiatric care in jail and was seen 20 times by doctors. While there have been delays in his case, most of them arose from him firing his court-appointed lawyer, Bardai noted.

He said Yaremko is welcome to reapply if factors change and “tip the balance in favour of a transfer.”

Yaremko, who self-represented during part of his judge-alone trial, is now represented by defence lawyer Evan Strelioff.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

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