Edmonton bar promoter gives final plea as sexual assault case ends

After 70 days at trial and an extended sentencing hearing, the Matthew McKnight sexual assault casefinally concluded Friday night.

McKnight, 33, was convicted in January by a jury on five counts of sexual assault. The former bar promoter was found not guilty on another eight sex assault charges.

The two lawyers are very far apart in sentencing recommendations.

Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga asked for a 22.5-year prison term.

McKnight's lawyer, Dino Bottos, suggested a sentence in the range of five to nine years.

The sentencing hearing was originally scheduled to last three daysbut stretched into seven. The seventh day went into overtime and wrapped up with McKnight addressing Court of Queen's Bench Justice Doreen Sulyma.

• Edmonton bar promoter pleads not guilty to multiple sex assaults
• 'She's lying': Edmonton bar promoter maintains innocence in face of 13 sex assault charges
• Edmonton bar promoter convicted on five counts of sexual assault

"I understand I am going to jail," McKnight said. "I want to say I had no malice in my heart and I did not set out to intentionally hurt anyone. That is not how my parents raised me."

McKnight insisted he had no intention of hurting anyone and said he would "go to his grave" swearing he never drugged anyone in order to have sex with them.

The women met McKnight at nightclubs and most were invited back to his downtown apartment for an after-party. All but one of the alleged assaults took place in McKnight's bedroom or bathroom.

Many of the women testified that McKnight plied them with drinks and in some cases they alleged they believed the drinks were spiked with a possible date-rape drug.

"I have had a great deal of time to think with shame about the actions that led me to this place," McKnight told the judge on Friday evening.

"At the time of these events I was unaware of the hurt I was causing. I had no plan or scheme to hurt anyone."

During the first three days of the sentencing hearing, court heard from four of the five victims and some of their family members.

McKnight called their statements "absolutely crushing."

"My heart is bursting and I feel like absolute garbage for making anyone feel that way," he said as he read from a written statement.

'I want to serve my debt to society'

When he testified during the trial, McKnight admitted he had between 200 and 300 sexual partners between 2010 and 2016.

He called the criminal charges, the trial and the media attention a wake-up call that's led him to make changes in his personal life, including abstaining from sex for the past four years while he's been free on bail.

"I don't ever want to again pursue casual relationships," McKnight said. "I have completely left my old life behind. I will never return to the career that led me into a lifestyle of debauchery."

He said that once he's released from prison, he hopes to move back to Vancouver to be closer to his parents and indicated he's been offered a job to work in a family business. McKnight also said he hopes that one day he can commit to a long-term relationship with someone.

Throughout the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor continued to insist that McKnight deserved a harsh sentence.

"In raping these five women, he treated each one as an object for his own sexual pleasure," Huyser-Wierenga said on Friday. "This conduct deserves a harsh sanction."

In one of his final submissions to the judge, Bottos said, "He's now looking at a sentence which will probably take him into his 40's having lost everything."

Bottos said what has happened "has at the very least scared him straight" and that his client was "a model for rehabilitation and reintegration."

In his defence, McKnightsaid he wanted to serve his debt to society "but still make something of my life."

"I humbly ask that you believe in my ability to be rehabilitated," he said.

Justice Sulymawill hand down her decision next Friday afternoon.