Fredericton man sent sex video to woman’s dad
Kurtis Stenger, 31, faces incarceration for a long list of crimes, including sharing intimate images, assaults and dangerous escapes from police in vehicles
A Fredericton man menaced a woman with a bat, trashed her car and sent sexually explicit images of her to her father over social media, among many other crimes, court heard Tuesday.
Kurtis Stenger, 31, of Mataya Drive, previously pleaded guilty to numerous offences and was scheduled to go through a sentencing hearing in Fredericton provincial court Tuesday.
Stenger was present in custody for Tuesday’s proceedings.
Defence lawyer Edward Derrah said his client has an outstanding assault charge in Saint John and was seeking to transfer it to Fredericton so he could be sentenced for all matters at the same time.
He suggested so as to make best use of court time, the Crown could relay the facts of Stenger’s Fredericton-area offences Tuesday, making the later submissions and decision on sentence a quicker process. Judge Lucie Mathurin agreed.
Crown prosecutor Darlene Blunston said the RCMP was called to a residence outside of Fredericton the night of Dec. 19, 2021, after a woman reported Stenger had smashed the windows of her car in her driveway.
The woman - whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban - had a tumultuous history with Stenger, court heard, leading him to trash her car in anger.
Blunston noted the offender was on a probation order that included a condition to have no contact with the victim, who’d also submitted a request for restitution for the $500 deductible she had to pay to get her vehicle fixed.
Stenger again targeted the woman Jan. 22, 2022, said prosecutor Rachel Anstey, who noted the victim contacted police to report that the accused had threatened her father over social media.
She also reported that through Facebook Messenger, Stenger had sent her father explicit photos of her engaging in oral sex and a video of her having intercourse.
Sharing intimate images of someone without their consent is an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada, and it’s from that crime that the afore-mentioned publication ban flowed.
The threat and the intimate-images offence also led to a related count of breach of probation, to which Stenger admitted as well.
Blunston said Stenger again victimized the woman when he spotted her in a car with another man on a highway outside Fredericton.
She said Stenger followed them to the woman’s residence shortly after midnight on Feb. 7, 2022.
“The accused pulled in the driveway behind them,” the prosecutor said, noting he had a baseball bat and menaced them with it, accounting for a charge of assault with a weapon.
Stenger never struck them with it, court heard, but he used it on the male victim’s car windows.
“During this time, the accused was yelling, ‘You piece of shit!’” Blunston said.
Again, Stenger was on probation at the time of this confrontation as well, court heard.
Escaped from police three times
As a result of those incidents, police were on the lookout for Stenger, and an RCMP officer spotted a white Ford SUV near the Mactaquac Dam the night of Feb. 12, 2022, Blunston said.
The officer pulled him over, she said, and Stenger identified himself but said he didn’t have his driver’s licence on him or registration.
When the Mountie asked Stenger to step out of the SUV, Blunston said, the offender said, “Nope,” started the vehicle and sped off. The officer tried to pursue but lost sight of the SUV, court heard, and Stenger got away.
It wouldn’t be the last time Stenger managed to elude police.
After that incident, he was arrested, but a judge released him March 11 on conditions, which included residing at his parents’ home in the Pepper Creek area and remaining there under house arrest except for work.
Blunston said police checked on him the night of July 6, but he wasn’t there, nor was he at work.
Later that month, she said, a police officer took note of a Chevy Silverado with Stenger at the wheel on Prospect Street and discovered it had an expired plate.
The officer tried to stop the truck, the prosecutor said, but again, the offender sped off at a high rate of speed, driving dangerously on Fredericton streets, even travelling the wrong lane of traffic after navigating a roundabout on Bishop Drive. It also marked another violation of his release conditions.
Stenger managed to get away when he reached Hanwell Road, court heard.
The most dangerous encounter with police occurred Aug. 2, Blunston said, when Stenger assaulted two Fredericton police officers with a vehicle.
Cpl. Shane Henderson, driving an unmarked police vehicle, spotted a black pickup truck at a known drug house in the city at about 8:30 p.m., the prosecutor said.
The truck was registered to Enterprise Rent-a-Car, she said, and the officer spotted Stenger at the wheel and followed him from the north side of the city to the downtown area.
Henderson and another officer - Cpl. Brian Carmichael, who was driving a marked police cruiser - tried to box the pickup in at the corner of Regent and King streets, Blunston said, but Stenger threw the pickup into reverse and smashed into Henderson’s vehicle.
Then he put it in drive, the front end of Carmichael’s cruiser, went up onto the sidewalk and then sped off, heading west on King Street, court heard.
Stenger blew through a red light and a stop sign has he made his escape, the prosecutor said, and he was able to lose police again.
While traffic was light at the time, Blunston said, the side streets off of King Street had limited views, and the flight represented a real danger to the public.
She said it was discovered the truck had been rented to Brandon Hatchard, who’s facing prosecution on outstanding charges including counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking.
Stenger is subject to an order from an Alberta court barring him from being in a motor vehicle without the registered owner being present, court heard.
The prosecutor said Stenger violated his release order again Aug. 6, as police checked on him again at his parents’ home, only to learn he was no longer living there.
Furthermore, Stenger admitted Tuesday to a count of fraud, stemming from a scam he pulled on Facebook Marketplace.
Blunston said two Halifax men saw a listing on the social-media site for a piece of machinery for sale, and they contacted the person who listed it, who turned out to be Stenger.
They immediately drove from Nova Scotia to a French Lake address they’d been given to pick up the item, court heard, but not before paying a $1,500 deposit to hold it while they made the trip.
The prosecutor said when the men reached the address, they discovered they’d been taken, as the person at that location didn’t know anything about the piece of machinery.
The men immediately contacted the RCMP, and the investigation of the banking records led officers to Stenger as the culprit.
After Stenger accepted all of the facts as relayed by the prosecutors Tuesday, Mathurin found him guilty of the various crimes.
She set over the remainder of the sentencing hearing to June 21.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
This guy needs to be in a cell. Why do they keep lettting him out? The justice system is a joke.
I see a "stiff" 2 years less a day sentence in his future. He'll be out in less then a year. Oh Canada, what a country.