The man killed someone and only served 8 years???????? The Canadian
Criminal justice system is worse than the US.

—– Original Message —–
From: “Breitkreuz, Garry – Assistant 1″ <[email protected]>
To: “Firearms Digest (E-mail)” <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 9:32 AM
Subject: Man who killed first wife assaults current one

PUBLICATION: The Fredericton Daily Gleaner
DATE: 2004.04.09
SECTION: News
PAGE: A1/A2
COLUMN: Greater Fredericton
BYLINE: DON MACPHERSON The Daily Gleaner

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Court fears second wife faces same fate as first; Man who killed first
wife assaults current one

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A Fredericton man who served eight years in prison for killing his first
wife was jailed 15 months for harassing and assaulting his second wife.

Guy Gaudreau, 62, formerly of 123 Clarence Ave., pleaded guilty in
provincial court Thursday to repeatedly harassing his second wife between
December and February and breaching a court undertaking to have no contact
with her.

He had previously pleaded guilty to a summary count of assaulting her Dec.
2.

Crown prosecutor Cameron Gunn said what sets this case apart from an
ordinary spousal abuse situation is the fact that Gaudreau was convicted in
1978 of manslaughter in the shooting death of his first wife.

Gaudreau’s second wife had not been aware of the circumstances of her
predecessor’s death.

“She knew his previous wife had died,” Gunn said.

It wasn’t until February, though, that she learned Gaudreau had shot the
first wife.

Because of Gaudreau’s escalating aggressive behaviour, Gunn said, his
daughter from his first marriage approached the new wife, told her of the
shooting and warned her to be careful.

Also alarming, the prosecutor said, is the nature of comments Gaudreau
made in his harassing telephone calls to his current wife. “He said he did
not want to share her with anybody, and if he couldn’t have her, nobody else
could,” Gunn said.

That statement was made over the phone in late December, and Feb. 22,
Gaudreau told his wife he’d kill himself if she didn’t take him back.

Gunn said not long before the December assault, Gaudreau tried to borrow a
handgun from a relative, claiming he needed it to go hunting.

Furthermore, a couple of years ago, as a result of a marital fight,
Gaudreau destroyed all of the couple’s household belongings with an axe.
Gunn said he was never charged for those actions.

Another disturbing aspect of the case is the fact that the second wife
shares a number of common factors with the first.

Gaudreau’s current wife is now the same age – her early 30s – as his first
wife was when he shot and killed her.

His second wife has also had an extra-marital affair, Gunn said, just as
the manslaughter victim had years ago.

Defence lawyer Robert Digdon said Gaudreau is remorseful and misses his
three young children who are at home with his wife.

“Mr. Gaudreau knows he has some problems,” Digdon said, including
alcoholism and mental health issues.

His lawyer said Gaudreau was on four different medications for
psychological problems at the time of the offences.

He also downplayed the nature of the continued harassing telephone calls,
noting that most of them involved no interaction as the accused’s wife never
answered the phone.

“Really, there were no real conversations, per se,” Digdon said.

Gaudreau addressed the court briefly.

“If my wife and kids were here, I would apologize to them and ask them to
forgive me. I love them very much,” he said Thursday, which was his 62nd
birthday.

Judge Hazen Strange had harsh words for Gaudreau.

“The accused would appear to be a controlling and manipulative person,”
the judge said, and described him as “a person who has learned nothing from
his past.”

Strange also said he didn’t buy into the argument that medications
affected Gaudreau’s judgment. He said anyone who served eight years in
prison for killing his wife should know better than to raise a hand to
another person.

“I don’t care if he’s on 50 medications. There is no excuse for making 50
harassing phone calls,” the judge said.

Strange said Gaudreau’s pre-sentence report points out that when he’s
despondent, he’s capable of suicide or of killing his wife and children.

“I have come to the conclusion that he is a dangerous person,” he said.

He sentenced Gaudreau to 12 months in prison for the harassment charge and
an additional three months consecutive for the breach of the undertaking.

Strange also imposed a two-month sentence for the assault, but ordered
that sentence to run concurrent to the others. The total jail sentence was
15 months.

The judge also ordered a three-year term of probation to follow the jail
sentence, during which Gaudreau is to have no contact with his now-estranged
spouse.

Gaudreau must also stay at least 100 metres away from her home, abstain
from alcohol, undergo psychiatric and psychological assessment and
treatment, and go through an anger-management course. Strange also ruled
that Gaudreau must submit bodily fluids for a national criminal DNA database
and prohibited him from possessing firearms for the rest of his life.