Drifter could spend rest of life in jail

A drifter born in prison and raised in foster homes may end up spending the rest of his life in jail.

Albert Muckle, responsible for a savage attack against a woman in Banff, is facing an application to have him declared a dangerous offender.

The 25-year-old is already looking at a life sentence for the brutal beating and sexual assault of a young hotel worker but being classified a dangerous offender would keep him behind bars indefinitely.

• FROM OCT 27, 2005: Man who brutally beat, raped woman faces dangerous offender trial

"If it's granted, it means that the person is given an indeterminate sentence, meaning a sentence without ending and the only way a person can subsequently be released from custody is to satisfy the parole board that the dangerousness has gone away," said Muckle's lawyer, Harry Van Harten.

Van Harten says there's a good chance the application will be successful.

"These applications are rare and I think they're always very considered before they're brought forward," he said.

Muckle pleaded guilty to viciously beating and raping his 20-year-old victim after a chance meeting at a bar in Banff last summer. The woman never recovered and remains in a vegetative state.

Van Harten says his client has been targeted by other inmates and pleaded guilty to the assault partially to speed up his transfer to a federal prison in Ontario. He says his client would feel safer there.

He says his client is anxious to get the dangerous offender hearing underway, so that he can receive his sentence.