It was an office romance gone very, very wrong.
When a Brantford, Ont., woman ended a five-year workplace affair in 2004, her spurned lover retaliated by repeatedly contaminating her work station with a chemical that severely burned and blistered her skin.
On Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal said that a conditional sentence meted out to the defendant, Jeffrey Carr, had been far too lenient. It said Mr. Carr's "controlling and manipulative behaviour" warranted at least two years in prison, continuing a steady erosion of cases in which conditional sentences have been rejected as too light.
"His conduct shows extensive planning and deliberation," said Madam Justice Karen Weiler, Madam Justice Janet Simmons and Mr. Justice David Watt. "The respondent was clearly aware or willfully blind to the harm he was causing. … He wanted the victim to quit her job so he would no longer see her."
The victim suffered excruciating burns and itching after she was exposed to Kathlon, a chemical used in the production of paint to inhibit fungi and mould.
"I'm definitely relieved," she said in an interview Tuesday. "I'm still traumatized. I just want to get over it."
Mr. Carr and his former lover worked at a Home Hardware paint factory in Burford, Ont., which is near Brantford. Both were married when they commenced their affair in 1999.
In mid-2004, shortly after splitting up with Mr. Carr, the victim began to suffer from burns to the bottom of her feet. They subsided after she went on maternity leave several months later, but returned as soon as she came back to work.
She left on another maternity leave in September, 2006. Her skin problems quickly disappeared.
A year later, she returned to work again. Her feet became so badly burned and blistered that she had trouble walking. Skin rashes and blisters broke out on her face, arms, legs and stomach, and she was forced to go on sick leave for six weeks.
"The victim began to notice and report finding liquid on her desk and work area in the mornings when she arrived at work," the Court of Appeal said. "He left love letters in the drawer of her desk, began showing up in her office and sending messages to her at work, and turning up whenever she was in the plant. He began calling her at home. He was also sending her numerous e-mails and professing his love for her and expressing anger at her for ending their relationship."
In August, 2008, Home Hardware hired a private investigator to install a surveillance camera near her work station. Mr. Carr was captured on film over a four-day period spraying a substance on her chair, keyboard and computer mouse. He also repeatedly tampered with her desk, moving books and files, placing a letter there.
Mr. Carr pleaded guilty last July to administering a noxious substance with intent to cause bodily harm and criminal harassment. At his sentencing, Crown counsel Karen Ornawka urged Ontario Court Judge W. Brian Stead to pass a sentence of three to four years for a crime that was "cowardly, underhanded and deceitful."
Addressing Judge Stead personally, Mr. Carr apologized for acts he said he "will regret for the rest of my life."
The judge gave him an 18-month conditional sentence that included six months of house arrest and two years probation. The Court of Appeal said that, because of the house arrest he has already served, he would not go to a federal prison but would serve two years less day in a provincial jail.