Matthew McKnight holds arms with his mother as they walk into court, in Edmonton on July 10, 2020. Crown prosecutors have filed a notice of appeal to increase the sentence given to a former Edmonton nightclub employee convicted of sexually assaulting five women. McKnight, 33, was sentenced to eight years in prison.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
The Court of Appeal of Alberta is considering whether to increase the sentence for a well-known bar promoter convicted in 2020 of five counts of sexual assault against women he met in the Edmonton club scene.
Matthew McKnight is currently serving eight years in prison. Alberta Justice and Solicitor-General lawyer Matthew Griener is arguing the sentence should be almost doubled, to 15.
Mr. McKnight stood trial in the fall of 2019 on 13 charges of sexual assault, related to allegations dating between 2010 and 2016. The trial, which lasted four months, was one of the longest sexual-assault trials in Canadian history.
In January, 2020, a jury found Mr. McKnight not-guilty on eight of the charges, and convicted him of the other five.
In sentencing argument after the convictions, Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga asked for 22 1/2 years in prison. Defence lawyer Dino Bottos argued that Mr. McKnight should receive from five to nine years.
In July, 2020, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Doreen Sulyma concluded a fit sentence was 16 1/2 years, which she then reduced to eight years based on a beating Mr. McKnight suffered while in the Edmonton Remand Centre, his strict bail conditions and what she saw as his remorse and “excellent chances to rehabilitate.”
The defence later appealed the five sexual-assault convictions, arguing Mr. McKnight should face a new trial on those charges because the Crown had been “abusive” and unfair to him in court.
That appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal of Alberta in 2022, and then by the Supreme Court of Canada in January. Having the conviction appeal settled now allows the Crown’s appeal, which was filed in 2020, to go ahead.
A key question before the Court of Appeal is Justice Sulyma’s application of the totality principal – which says a sentence shouldn’t be unreasonably long for multiple offences – and whether the reductions she gave Mr. McKnight were too great given the gravity of the offences.
“It’s not a case about casual sex. It’s not a case about debauchery,” said Mr. Griener, appearing before the three-person panel of justices in Edmonton. “This is a case of serial rape.”
Appeal lawyer Peter Sankoff, appearing for Mr. McKnight, described the original eight-year sentence as “on the more generous side of reasonable,” but he said it still falls within the range of an acceptable sentence, and urged deference to the trial judge’s sentencing.
He said Mr. McKnight accepts the verdicts in this case, and has taken courses on sexual behaviour in the 2 1/2 years he has spent in custody.
At least two of the women from the trial were in court for the appeal argument. Mr. McKnight was not present in court for the proceedings.
The court reserved its decision.