Violent sexual predator deemed dangerous offender, jailed indefinitely
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Serial rapist Melvin Eastman was declared a dangerous offender with an indefinite sentence this week after being convicted of his third violent sexual assault.
The sexual predator and crack cocaine addict targeted vulnerable women, with whom he shared drugs, and “disrespected them by focusing on their profession (prostitution) and their drug use,” wrote Justice Jane Kelly.
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“He chose his last victim because she seemed to be the most vulnerable and that because of her vulnerabilities she would be the least likely to turn him in to authourities.”
The judge agreed with Crown attorneys Mihael Cole and Craig Brannagan that an indefinite sentence was the only way to protect the public from Eastman because he can’t control his violent sexual impulses.
He and his last victim were drinking and doing drugs at his Toronto apartment on Sept. 9, 2016. He started forcing himself upon her, saying, “You lay still, be quiet and let me do my thing and I won’t rape you.”
The victim struggled and Eastman punched her and strangled her, nearly to unconsciousness.
“She thought she was going to die. She told him she had AIDS and hep C,” said Kelly.
“He responded by saying, ‘You have Hep C? So do I. Welcome to the club.'”
She urinated, hoping to disgust him. He let her go to the bathroom. The ploy enabled her to escape and report him to police, court heard.
Eastman, 55, piled up 20 convictions in a terrible criminal record dating back to 1984. His first sexual assault was a knifepoint rape in October 1993 of a woman in Regent Park.
She still has recurring nightmares and wished Eastman would get “what he deserves” — an endless sentence — “so that no one else has to suffer the pain that I deal with daily…”
A psychiatrist said Eastman picks his prey, “applying a discount to certain human beings because of their chosen profession or activities.
“It certainly strikes to a lack of empathy and … callousness to the way you discount human beings based on your attitudes or your views,” court heard.
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