On the evening of June 8, 2013, wearing a hoodie pulled up over his head, convicted serial rapist Andrew Aurie Jefferson walked up behind a young woman and said, “You are being stabbed. I am taking your car.”
The Langley City woman thought at first the stranger must be joking.
But then Jefferson said it again, putting her in a bear hug from behind and pointing a knife to her stomach.
A struggle ensued and she managed to move away so he only nicked her stomach, but the stab wound left a scar.
“The scar is a constant reminder of what happened to me,” said the woman in her victim impact statement. It was read by Crown counsel at Jefferson’s sentencing hearing in Surrey Provincial Court on Tuesday.
The court heard that the victim dropped her keys and Jefferson let her go, picked them up and took off in her car.
By then, a resident in her apartment building on 200 Street had called 911.
Police were quickly on Jefferson’s tail. Within 10 minutes, he was under arrest. At that time, the young Alberta man remarked that he was: “F#cked and I’m going away for awhile.”
Going away for a long time is the recommendation of the Crown counsel, which is seeking long-term offender status for Jefferson. He has already spent six years in federal prison for violently raping three women in Calgary.
Jefferson, 28, with his brown hair cropped short, dressed in a red jumpsuit, sat intently listening in the prisoner’s box, while Crown asked for four to five years jail for the carjacking. He pleaded guilty to robbery in that case. He has been in jail since his arrest last June.
Within his sentencing request, Crown prosecutor Chrichton Pike is also asking that Jefferson be deemed a long-term offender and have to serve an additional 10 years in the community under strict supervision. At 10 years, Crown is asking the longest alloted time under Canadian law.
For Crown to seek such status the offender must pose a substantial risk to re-offend and be a risk to the community.
Pike told the judge that Jefferson fits these requirements, including the fact that he was on probation on the time of the carjacking and that he has refused all programs offered to help him, including sex offender programs and violence prevention while in and out of prison.
The Langley victim said in her statement that she suffers from anxiety and paranoia, avoids crowds and never walks by herself. She has had a hard time working and trusting and has recently sought counselling.
The man dubbed the Falconridge rapist
In 2006, a Calgary neighbourhood was terrorized after three women were attacked and raped at knifepoint. No one knew who was doing this. Baby-faced Andrew Jefferson, 22 at the time, was arrested and convicted of raping two women at knifepoint, one of them repeatedly, and assaulting the other. Dubbed the Falconridge rapist, he served six years for those crimes.
At sentencing, he apologized and promised he would make a change for the better.
While in prison, he had several in-house convictions for intimidating prisoners and aggressive behaviour.
When released from federal prison in 2011, he was deemed an “untreated high-risk sex offender.” He chose not to take part in any therapy.
Jefferson relocated to Surrey, to the outrage of Mayor Dianne Watts. Some young women started a Facebook page warning about Jefferson, who they claimed was going on dating websites to pick up women.
His parole officer, Elena Henricksson, took the stand on Tuesday, testifying that she referred Jefferson to several therapy programs for sex offenders, violence prevention and substance abuse. He refused all of them.
She also referred him to two psychiatrists. He never made it to the appointments. In the one-on-one meetings she had with him, he would often swear at her and get aggressive, angry because he wanted to get into relationships with women but was prevented from doing so because of his release conditions which included disclosing his criminal history to women.
“In the beginning, he would basically throw a tantrum every time he didn’t get his way,” she said.
His one meeting with a psychiatrist landed him back in jail for being aggressive, a breach of his conditions.
The court learned that Jefferson’s drugs of choice were crystal meth and pot.
He complained to Henricksson that the housing they had found for him were nothing more than drug houses, full of dealers.
After less than a year living in Surrey, he was accused of rape again, this time of a teenager he met online.
However, Jefferson was found not guilty of sexually assaulting and choking the teen in Surrey in 2012.
Jefferson’s trial on the Surrey rape charges took place in April in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. On April 16, the 12-member jury delivered its not guilty verdict.
During the trial, the alleged victim told the court she had met Jefferson on the online dating site Plenty of Fish in late 2012, when she was 17.
She is now 19. Her identity is shielded by a publication ban.
The jury in the Surrey case was not privy to details of Jefferson’s past convictions or current charges.
The sentencing continued Wednesday, with Crown presenting Jefferson’s court ordered psychiatric report. Defense was expected to respond on Wednesday afternoon.
