A Richmond man who posed as a modelling agent to sexually assault women has lost a bid to have a dangerous offender hearing thrown out due to sentencing delays.
Novid Dadmand was found guilty in August 2016 of sexually assaulting five women — four of them by convincing them he was a modelling agent and that they were auditioning for a position as a model.
Two of the victims were unconscious when Dadmand sexually assaulted them, attacks that he recorded on video. Those tapes were subsequently seized by police.
After his conviction at the B.C. Supreme Court by Justice Paul Pearlman, the Crown applied to have Dadmand declared a dangerous offender, which could result in him facing an indefinite jail sentence.
A nine-week hearing was set to begin later this month, but Dadmand’s lawyers claimed that the delay from more than a year ago was unreasonable and applied for a stay of proceedings and an order quashing the convictions.
The Crown responded by arguing that dangerous offender proceedings — in which a court-appointed assessment of the accused must be done and the approval of the Attorney General obtained to go ahead — were inherently more complex and lengthy than conventional sentence hearings.
Crown also contended that any prejudice to Dadmand while he awaited sentencing was outweighed by the public interest in making sure an appropriate sentence is handed down.
In a ruling released Friday, Judge Pearlman noted that a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the issue of trial delay, in which limits were imposed on the time it takes from charges to be laid until a verdict, had declined to consider whether the limits applied to delays in sentencing. He said no binding appellate authority provided guidance.
The judge found the total delay from the verdict to the anticipated date of decision on sentencing to be 16 months, a period that was long enough for him to be required to conduct an inquiry.
During Dadmand’s trial last year, his lawyers claimed several of the victims understood the nature of the sexual activities as being part of the auditions, which included the possibility of pornographic work. They argued that while the accused’s actions may have been immoral, they were not illegal because the victims consented.
But Judge Pearlman disagreed and found Dadmand guilty of sexually assaulting five women.
One of his victims, a 19-year-old university student and aspiring model, thought she was too short to be a model. But when Dadmand told her that personality and drive were more important than height, she thought someone was giving her a chance for a modelling career.
Dadmand persuaded her to do an audition and picked her up at the Richmond-Brighouse Canada Line station and drove her to his home, saying his studio was not available. At the home and during the course of an “audition,” he touched her sexually.
A second victim testified that she was contacted by a man who identified himself as a model on a dating website.
The man, who provided photos of himself depicting a heavily tattooed male, encouraged her to consider modelling and meet with his agent.
Later, the “agent,” who turned out to be Dadmand, contacted her and told her she could make a lot of money modelling.
She was skeptical and did not want to meet him, but in April 30, 2012, she contacted him after she’d been taken to St. Paul’s Hospital after ingesting cocaine and a large quantity of alcohol and needed someone to drive her home.
Dadmand picked her up and took her to his apartment in Richmond, where they sat and drank wine in his living room and he talked to her about signing a modelling contract.
She did not remember him taking photos of her or a video and woke the next morning naked in his bed.
The judge concluded the victim was unconscious when Dadmand had sex with her during the night.
“It was impossible for the complainant to consent to sexual activity in those circumstances.”
-With a file from the Vancouver Sun
