A 22-year-old Port Coquitlam man will serve an additional three-and-a-half years in a federal penitentiary for two violent sexual assaults that occurred two years ago.
James Alkenbrack, who has been in jail since his arrest in April, 2010, earning 20 months in time served, will also have to participate in a treatment program. The programming is imperative, wrote judge Marion Bennett in her reasons for sentence, because the accused has the potential to re-offend.
"In my view, that has to be intensive programming and this must occur before he is allowed reintegration into society and that may be self-evident: It is to protect the public," the judge wrote in the reasons for sentence. "This is so, especially given his risk to re-offend."
Bennett also ordered that a DNA sample be provided to the authorities and that the accused be subjected to a 10-year firearms prohibition.
The sexual assaults stem from two incidents that took place in the winter of 2010.
The first victim was walking down a street in Port Coquitlam when a man from across the road asked her the time. A few minutes later she felt him running at her from behind and he grabbed her by the throat, threw her on the ground and tried to put his hand down her pants.
The victim fought back, punching him in the face and screaming before he ran off.
As it turned out, the victim recognized her attacker as Alkenbrack because the two had attended the same middle school.
A month later a second, more violent attack occurred.
Alkenbrack grabbed a woman at about 11:30 p.m. on March. 23 and dragged her behind a fenced area where he proceeded to rape her for close to 30 minutes.
Eventually Alkenbrack let her go and the victim was able to find her phone and call for help.
An additional two months was added to Alkenbrack's sentence for a later physical assault on his mother.
In her reasons for sentence the judge noted several mitigating factors. A report provided to the court stated that Alkenbrack came from an abusive home and lost his father at an early age. He was also in and out of foster care for a portion of his young life and has shown remorse for the attacks.
However, given the level of violence Alkenbrack displayed and his potential to re-offend, the judge said a federal sentence (longer than two years) was required.
"The intensive programming of course is available in both systems but my reading of the information before me is that a more intensive program is available in the federal system," Bennett stated. She later added that "I have to state for the record it is with the greatest reluctance that I consider the federal system for any young first-time offender."
gmckenna@tricitynews.com
