cat killer won't have to spend any more time behind bars for animal abuse, judge says
man pleaded guilty to killing one of his then-girlfriend's cats and abusing another
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the calgary courts centre in downtown calgary.
kevin martin/postmedia
finding a cat killer’s borderline intellect to be a mitigating factor, a calgary judge on friday handed animal abuser norman joseph gosselin a two-year sentence.
and since gosselin has already spent the equivalent of nearly 30 months behind bars awaiting trial, he won’t have to do any more time for killing one feline and badly abusing another, justice john bascom said.
the calgary court of justice judge agreed with defence counsel moira mcavoy that gosselin’s killing of a black and white kitten on feb. 1, 2023, warranted a sentence of 18 months.
his abuse of a second cat, an orange tabby, on march 9, 2023, called for an additional six-month term, bascom said.
but because gosselin has been in custody for 600 days, the equivalent of 900 days when given the normal 1½-day credit for each served, the offender was handed a nominal one-day sentence on each charge.
crown prosecutor samina dhalla had sought a total sentence of up to six years for gosselin, who remains behind bars on unrelated charges despite bascom’s ruling.
she argued a sentence for killing one of his then-girlfriend’s kittens warranted a sentence in the three- to five-year range, with an extra year for abusing a second kitten more than a month later.
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bascom said he had to consider gosselin’s low iq, which he determined was a mental illness “even if it wasn’t the cause of this particular offence.”
the judge said even though gosselin has the capacity to appreciate what he did was wrong he’s “not very bright.”
dhalla argued that should have very little, if any, effect on the appropriate sentence, noting gosselin bemoaned the fact he was captured on his girlfriend’s security cameras killing one of the kittens.
“he had enough of an iq to say his only regret was failing to unplug that camera,” the prosecutor said.
last july, gosselin pleaded to two criminal charges of animal cruelty in connection with the two incidents.
reading from a statement of agreed facts, dhalla told court gosselin discussed his involvement in the abuse of his girlfriend’s pets with a fellow calgary remand centre inmate whom she identified as a.l.
“a.l. indicated that the accused told him that he killed his wife’s cat in the basement of their house and when he did so he was wearing steel-toed boots,” dhalla said.
“he told a.l. that he stepped on the cat’s head, picked it up and then twisted and broke the neck of the cat,” the prosecutor said.
“the accused told him that his only regret was that he would have unplugged the camera.”
