Brampton man convicted of sexual assault has left the country
A Brampton man convicted of sexual assault and possibly facing years in prison has managed to slip out of the country before being sentenced.
Moazzam Tariq, 29, flew to Pakistan from Montreal on Nov.18, a Toronto court heard on Thursday, two weeks before his scheduled sentencing hearing.
In October, Tariq was found guilty of sexually assaulting a Toronto woman who was too drunk to consent to sex.
However, Tariq avoided custody that day and walked freely out of Toronto's Old City Hall courthouse. He was to remain under his bail conditions until his sentencing on Dec. 1.
But Tariq was a no-show for the hearing and a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest. Police were investigating the possibility that Tariq had travelled to Vancouver.
On Thursday, a crown prosecutor informed the court that Tariq has fled to Pakistan.
Tariq surrendered a passport to police after his conviction but the Crown said he used a second Pakistani passport to fly to Pakistan from Montreal on Nov. 18.
Tariq was born in Pakistan and is a permanent resident of Canada.
After his arrest in 2015, Tariq was freed on $10,000 bail posted by his father.
Has fled before
The Crown also advised the court on Thursday that this is the second time Tariq has left the country after committing a crime, information that the court was previously unaware of.
According to the Crown, Tariq fled to Pakistan after being charged with dangerous driving in Brampton in 2010.
The Crown told the court Tariq's criminal record was incomplete and did not contain any information about the dangerous driving charge or previously fleeing the country. The Crown informed the court Thursday at its first opportunity.
Undermines trust in the court
The court builds in several safeguards to force an accused to abide by bail conditions, Toronto criminal defence lawyer Trevin David told CBC Toronto.
David said that it's "extremely rare" for an accused or convicted criminal to flee in the middle of trial or before sentencing.
That's because the court imposes a surety -- in Tariq's case $10,000 paid by his father -- to compel an accused to abide by bail conditions. Tariq's father will probably forfeit that sum, David said.
It also means that Tariq likely cannot appeal his sentence if he were to return to face it, David said.
But since Pakistan does not have an extradition treaty with Canada, authorities there cannot force him to come back to face justice.
Convicted of sexual assault
On Oct. 7, Justice Mara Greene found Tariq guilty of sexual assaulting a Toronto woman who was too drunk to consent to sex.
Tariq and the woman, who was 25 at the time, met at the Everleigh nightclub in downtown Toronto early in the morning of July 18, 2015.
Surveillance camera footage submitted as evidence shows Tariq pouring vodka from a bottle into the woman's mouth several times. At one point, she pushes the bottle away.
From there, the pair went to the Thompson Hotel, where Tariq booked a room. Surveillance footage from the hotel's elevator shows the woman having trouble standing up and keeping her eyes open.
Tariq had sexual intercourse with the woman in the hotel room but Greene ruled the victim "did not have the capacity to consent and therefore did not consent" to sex.
The woman woke up alone in the hotel room and reported the sexual assault to police later that day.
At the sentencing hearing Tariq skipped, the woman, whose identity is protected, submitted a victim impact statement that described her feeling scared, embarrassed and like a "completely different person" after the assault.
The Crown is seeking a three-year prison sentence for Tariq.
