Man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted young girl details humiliations of jail life
CBC
Lawrence Allen Thompson, the former London, Ont., school custodian who was found guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl on Mother's Day in 2018, detailed during his sentencing the mistreatment he has faced at the hands of other inmates since being arrested for his crimes.
In May, the 69-year-old was found guilty of sexual assault, sexual interference, kidnapping and abduction. He had taken the girl, who was looking for ladybugs outside her house, into his car and drove around with her for several minutes before returning her to a nearby intersection. He's been in custody since his May 14, 2018 arrest.
"When I tried to tell the COs [correctional officers] what was happening to me, one guy said 'You're a damn rat,' and he slapped me across the head. That's when I learned what a rat was. You don't talk to the CO, or it gets worse for you," Thompson said during his testimony.
Since he was first arrested, he's been in jails in London, Windsor, Milton, Lindsay, Stratford and Niagara. He says he's slept on the floor for much of the time that he's been in jail.
Thompson has already been found guilty, but where he will serve his sentence, and for how long, is at issue. The judge will make her decision on sentencing in December, and can take into account the conditions in which Thompson was living since his arrest almost four years ago, including lockdowns and assaults in jail.
Crown Kristina Mildred has asked the judge to sentence Thompson to 10 years in prison, with some credit for the time he's already served in custody. Thompson's lawyer Lakin Afolabi says his client should not get any prison time, when considering the time he's already spent in jail and the conditions.
Thompson told the court he'd suffered one serious assault in London's Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre, and that the "inmate culture" that puts those charged with sex crimes, especially on children, at the bottom of an inmate hierarchy meant he was always on edge.
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