Convicted sex offender and U of C student Connor Neurauter to begin serving sentence immediately on weekends
By Tina Shaygan, February 8 2018 —
Convicted sex offender Connor Neurauter will begin serving his sentence intermittently, from Friday evenings to Sunday afternoons, beginning the weekend of Feb. 9. Neurauter was convicted of sexual interference with a minor on Jan. 9 and was given permission by the judge to serve his 90-days sentence in May to allow him to finish his semester at the University of Calgary.
“I made a determination it was appropriate Mr. Neurauter be permitted to serve his sentence in an intermittent fashion [one nominal day on Jan. 4 and 89 days beginning in May] that would allow him to finish his schooling,” the judge, Stephen Harrison told Kamloops This Week. “I gather that has not panned out.”
A petition to expel Neurauter from the U of C started shortly after the initial reports came out and has over 75,000 signatures. While the U of C did not expel him, the school’s administration advised him to stay off campus for the remainder of the semester.
U of C provost Dru Marshall said that if Neurauter came to campus, security would escort him off. The Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association called this a “de facto expulsion” and criticized the U of C for it. According to Global News, Marshall said Neurauter has not been expelled and the U of C is working with him to “develop options that would allow him to pursue his studies in a productive learning environment.”
According to Kamloops This Week, Neurauter asked the judge to allow him to complete his sentence intermittently while working and taking online classes.
“I’m satisfied it is appropriate to allow Mr. Neurauter employment and home study while he observes the punishment imposed by law,” Harrison said.
According to the same article, an unnamed observer stood up in the courtroom gallery and started shouting.
“Absolute horse shit, your honour,” he said.
According to the article, Neurauter said he was going to attack the unnamed observer.
“Who is this guy?” Neurauter said. “I’m going to smash his teeth in.”
Update:
Update: The mother of one of Neurauter’s victims says that concerns about her daughter’s anonymity are preventing the man who Neurauter threatened outside the court from pressing charges.
The man who shouted “Absolute horseshit, your honour” in court is a close relative of one of the victims. Pressing charges could reveal his identity, meaning the identity of the victim would also be revealed.
“The RCMP has said that if he presses charges, and that was his plan, then Connor would know his name and be able to access his address and everything, so our hands our tied,” said the victim’s mother, who spoke with the Gauntlet on terms of anonymity.
The mother also cited frustrations with the courts for maintaining Neurauter’s non-concurrent sentence.
“The whole thing with having weekends was nothing to do with feeling like, ‘I guess I should serve my time now,’ ” she said. “He’s got a part-time job, so now they’re accommodating his job. Why he’s not going in full-time just infuriates me.”
In the end, the victim’s mother says she wants to see consequences for Neurauter’s actions. She feels that his threat outside the courtroom doesn’t reflect that.
“I certainly don’t wish him harm. I just wanted it to be real for him,” she said. “The fact that he walked out of the courtroom on that day, when he got that cushy sentence, says that he clearly doesn’t take this seriously. It’s a joke.”