Faced with a very harsh prison sentence, sex offender Jody Matthew Burke, who forced his ex-wife to have sex with a knife to her throat, demands to be considered a woman in order to obtain a sentence more lenient.
Posted at 4:59 p.m.
The 46-year-old, a former physical trainer and judo specialist at a Montreal gym, now asks to be called Amber and referred to as “her” in court, something the Crown and Defense have respected since Wednesday, during sentencing representations at the Montreal courthouse.
Burke, who has been incarcerated since 2017, was convicted in May 2021 of eight counts, including sexual assault with a weapon causing bodily harm and death threats. He had completely hidden from his spouse and victim, Brigitte Jobin, that he was on the federal sex offender registry for similar violent sex crimes committed in 2005 and 2014 in British Columbia and Ontario.
At the end of a four-year trial, during which Burke changed lawyers eight times, the Crown demanded that he be declared a “dangerous offender”. Such a label would earn him an indefinite incarceration of a minimum of 7 years, and a return to prison at the slightest offense.
But Burke, who claims to have realized his true sexual identity in 2019, 2020 or 2021-his testimony is not clear to this effect-claims instead to be declared a “delinquent to control”, which would earn him a more lenient sentence. His lawyer intends to have an expert testify who will come to explain, at a future hearing, that his violent past is linked to his “gender dysphoria”, a distress linked to the opposition between his sex assigned at birth and his identity as real kind.
“I had to go through my own process to identify that I was not a man,” he explained, saying he once had a gay affair that shook his perception of his gender identity. , but that it was only recently, a few weeks ago, that he admitted the truth and “had the balls to become a woman”. He says he has collected photos that show the physical attributes of the woman he desires to become, but wants to begin his gender reassignment process in a hospital rather than a prison. “It would be preferable to have the services and support” of such an establishment, he pleaded before Judge Jean-Jacques Gagné.
Impressively built, Burke admitted that he still takes testosterone in prison and said he delays taking hormone therapy for “fear of other inmates” and the possible attacks that a change of sex would bring him in prison. prison.
Pinel Institute psychiatrist Alexandre Dumais, who wrote an expert report on Burke, says he is at “high risk of violent recidivism”. Burke told him, in 2021, of his wish to become Amber, “a person he did not want to describe as male or female, preferring the term ‘trans,'” reads his report. “In his process to become Amber, he wishes to receive hormone therapy. [Celle-ci] could also reduce the risk of sexual recidivism, writes the psychiatrist. In such a case, this is highly recommended”
During his testimony Thursday, Burke also argued that this gender transition is “just a small part” of the journey he’s been on since being convicted. In the defendants’ box, he admitted to having done “a lot of damage” to his ex-joint and apologized to her, but never specified what wrongs he had committed.
Brigitte Jobin, who wrote a book about her horrific experience with Burke, doesn’t believe a word he says. “I think it’s manipulation. He does this to avoid the label of dangerous offender, which will follow him all his life, ”she says.
“The judge didn’t believe his story throughout the trial, so he tries another tactic by claiming that all his violence is caused by his gender dysphoria,” she believes.
During the trial, Burke, who ended up representing himself, caused many legal delays, to the point the Court cut short his defense by rejecting several testimonies deemed impertinent. In a long written judgment of 59 pages, Judge Gagné noted his strong propensity to position himself “as a victim of the police, the courts” and Mr.me Jobin and that he was constantly “referring to his own person”.
With Louis-Samuel Perron, The Press