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*Warning: This article contains elements that some may find triggering.
*Editor's note: A publication ban covers any information that might identify the victims in this case, including many details of the incidents themselves.
A serial sex offender from Palmerston was a “wolf in sheep's clothing” when he committed crimes against two women while they were asleep.
That from one of the two victims, as impact statements were read out in Guelph Superior Court Friday.
It was part of sentencing submissions for Michael Hurst that lasted much of the day.
Hurst was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault last month. This, in connection with incidents between 2003 and 2005, involving two female victims. Two of the incidents involved rape.
Hurst is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 29.
Both victims’ statements were read out in court. A publication ban prohibits any information that may identify the victims, including details of the incidents themselves.
“Like a predator, you saw an opportunity,” one of the victim’s wrote. A loved one read her statement aloud to the court.
She added being sexually assaulted will be something she will “never be able to unfeel and unsee,” and continues to have nightmares of being touched.
“I still, to this day, cannot sleep at night,” the statement read.
The trial, she added, “forced me to experience being re-victimized.”
The victim said Hurst knew what he did, and he knew it was wrong.
“It’s time you accept the punishment,” the statement added. ”Right now, you don’t get to shrug your shoulders. You’ve been convicted of violating me intentionally, forcibly, sexually, with malicious intent.”
The statement ended that as of Dec. 17 – the date a 12-person jury found Hurst guilty – she “transitioned from a victim to a survivor.”
“My new life now, as a survivor, starts today,” she wrote.
The other victim, who chose to read out her statement herself, expressed regret for not coming forward sooner. She expressed how becoming a wife and mother changed her perspective.
“I wasn’t sure about taking legal action until I thought about the possibility of my daughter, or anyone else, coming to me with a similar story, now and in the future,” she said.
She said Hurst’s actions changed her, and impacted her relationships. She added she no longer walks “with the same confidence I once did.”
She said she doesn’t think he’ll “ever” accept responsibility for his actions, and “I don’t think you would’ve stopped” if Hurst wasn’t caught.
“I fear the day your sentence ends,” the victim stated.
Crown attorney Mark Eshuis explained to the court during his closing arguments last month that both times involving penetration, the women were asleep and woke up with Hurst inside them.
“This is very serious,” he told the court, adding the crimes have had a lasting impact both emotionally and economically.”
“The behaviour of Mr. Hurst was of a predatory nature.”
The Crown is seeking a seven year jail sentence, which would be served consecutively with sentences handed down in two previous trials.
In November, he was sentenced to six months in jail after he was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault. This is in connection to incidents between 2017 and 2020, mostly in Wellington North.
He was also found guilty of two counts of sexual assault and three counts of committing an indecent act last summer. In June, he was sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest and three years probation for those crimes.
The house arrest term will continue once Hurst is out of prison.
Earlier in the day, a separate hearing dealt with the length of time Hurst would be on the national sex offender registry relating to a conviction last November. It was rather brief, and it was accepted Hurst would be on the registry for 20 years.
With this most recent conviction, Eshuis is seeking his time on the registry to get extended to life.
Defense attorney Mary Murphy wants a four-year jail term.
She submitted letters of support for Hurst, including from his wife, multiple neighbours and employers. Murphy described Hurst as having a “supportive family, a generally positive background.”
Murphy also alluded to Hurst seeing a therapist before being arrested.
“It is imperative that the sentence not be crushing,” she said, adding the sentence the Crown is asking for would be just that.
The day ended with Hurst addressing the court.
During his brief, tearful statement, he apologized to the two victims for betraying their friendships and trust.
He said over the last three years, with help, he took his life “in a direction that one day I hope my son, my wife and my family can be proud of.”
Hurst said he hopes with the help of his wife, he can use this as an “important life lesson” to help his son grow into “an amazing young person.”
