Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

A Winnipeg man was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for raping a long-time friend after she refused to participate in a “threesome” with another woman.

Queen’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser said Kenneth Bauer committed a “despicable” act which humiliated the victim and cries out for punishment.

Bauer had been seeking a much lighter penalty of four years behind bars. Defence lawyer Mike Cook said his client plans to appeal both his conviction and sentence.

A jury took only a few hours last month to find Bauer guilty of sexual assault, forcible confinement and uttering threats.

The 29-year-old victim told court she’d spent the night of April 19, 2007 drinking with Bauer when he began pestering her for sex. An angry Bauer grabbed her from behind and knocked her down, then tied her hands and legs together and bound her to the stove, court was told. Bauer then raped the woman and said he would kill her if she told anyone.

He later took the woman on his snowmobile but crashed through a winter road. Both managed to escape the water and the woman went running for help. She told jurors she spent the night in the woods, hiding under a tree.

“Obviously the jury was satisfied the allegations occurred,” Cook said outside court Friday.