Warning: Some may find the details in this story disturbing
A Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench Justice today approved the Crown’s application review to have Cory Smockum, 38, designated as a Dangerous Offender.
If Smockum is found to be a Dangerous Offender the sentence can be an indefinite prison term. In addition, Dangerous Offenders are subject to lengthy supervision orders.
Justice Grant Currie granted the Crown’s application and ordered an assessment and scheduled a hearing to determine if Smockum should be designated as a dangerous offender.
Smockum was found guilty in February of attempted murder after a five-day trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. The charges stem from an incident on Oct. 14, 2018, near Hanley. But there was a hung jury on two charges including aggravated sexual assault and choking to overcome resistance. A mistrial was declared on those charges. The Saskatoon Prosecutions Office, however, in June said they were retrying the sexual assault charges.
During Smockum’s trial, the court heard that he had a 2016 conviction after being arrested in 2015 by North Battleford RCMP. He was charged with sexual assault, assault and choking to overcome resistance. The choking charge was dropped and the assault and sexual assault charges were changed to assault causing bodily harm and sexual assault causing bodily harm, respectively. Smockum was found guilty in 2016 of assault causing bodily harm. He was found not guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm.
During the 2020 trial, the court heard that Smockum sexually and physically assaulted his former girlfriend and threatened to kill others, having “serious intentions of killing everyone he could that night.”
The violent assault occurred in a garage after the two went to a sled rally in Hanley.
The victim said Smockum kicked the garage door open, threw her face down on the garage floor, closed the door, got on top of her and punched her continuously in the face with his fist and elbow. She said he called her names and threatened her.
The victim lost consciousness and when she came to she said he was still hitting her and she was in a different spot in the garage. She told the court that she was choked unconscious three times and during the third time “everything went warm,” her vision went and she “made peace with dying that night.”
Smockum took the victim on a quad through a field and told her she was going to end up like her friend Ashley Morin who was last seen in North Battleford in July 2018. RCMP believe Morin, 31, was the victim of homicide. Her body has never been found.
Smockum rolled the quad and was injured. The victim ran and hid in a grain elevator, which is where police found her early the next morning.
The victim spent six days in hospital with broken ribs, a brain bleed, damage to her knees and stiches on her lip. She also had a cut on the side of her head, black eyes, bruising and ear damage.
Sentencing of Smockum is now postponed until the courts decide whether or not to designate him as a dangerous offender.
Smockum – who remains in custody - is now scheduled to appear in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench by telephone on Oct. 13 to set a date for the dangerous offender hearing.
