Update
Nearly five years after the offence was alleged to have occurred, Joseph Vance Caron walked out of Vernon Law Courts Monday as a free man.
Caron, born in 1969, was before Justice Alison Beames in Supreme Court after he successfully appealed his May 2015 conviction and was granted a new trial. However, during that trial’s second week before the courts Monday, March 11, the complainant failed to respond under cross-examination by defence lawyer Alexander Watt, and Crown prosecutor Neil Wiberg directed the court to enter a stay of proceedings.
Related: Stay of proceedings in Armstrong sexual assault trial
Update
Joseph Vance Caron has had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal for British Columbia.
In his notice of appeal, the appellant requested a new trial before a court composed of a judge and jury.
Original
An Armstrong man has been declared a long-term offender.
Joseph Vance Caron, born in 1969, was sentenced May 8 in connection with an Armstrong sexual assault that RCMP began investigating in May 2014. Caron was arrested in July of that year and was facing charges of sexual assault, unlawful confinement, uttering threats and attempting to choke a victim to commit a sexual offence
He was sentenced to six years and three months on three of the counts, including sexual assault. Caron received credit for time already served, so he will serve another two years behind bars.
Dan McLaughlin, communications counsel with the B.C. Prosecution Service, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General, said that “after a full and careful review of the evidence available for the dangerous offender hearing the Crown concluded that Mr. Caron satisfied the long-term offender designation threshold.”
“He will be subject to a long-term supervision order for six years,” said McLaughlin.
The long-term offender (LTO) designation was created as a residual sentencing regime to help deal with offenders who are not captured by the dangerous offender (DO) provisions. Caron also received a lifetime prohibition from the possession of firearms and was placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years.
