‘My face is all over the news,’ high-risk sex offender complains to Halifax judge

A high-risk sex offender who was arrested in Halifax this week on new charges involving three women says it will be hard to get a fair trial because of all the publicity surrounding him.

Gamon Jay Leacock complained during a video appearance in Halifax provincial court Friday after a Crown attorney confirmed the complainants want a publication ban on their identities to remain in place.

“Can I get a publication ban as well?” Leacock asked Judge Ann Marie Simmons.

“My face is all over the news. How am I ever going to get a fair trial? You know what I mean? Fair is fair, right?”

The judge explained that the Criminal Code prohibits anyone from publishing any information that would serve to identify the complainants.

“There is no specific provision in the (code) to put a ban on identifying the person who is accused of committing the crimes,” Simmons told Leacock.

“Do you have any submissions to make contrary to the ban on information that would identify the complainants?”

“No, I could care less about that,” Leacock responded. “I get that they want their anonymity, but at the same time, I kind of want some as well.

“I’m going to end up having a trial. If my name is in the paper every week (for) different things here and there, it kind of puts a judgment on (me).”

Leacock, 49, was supposed to have a bail hearing Friday but asked that it be adjourned for two weeks while he tries to retain a lawyer.

Simmons rescheduled the hearing for Feb. 2 and encouraged Leacock to speak with his lawyer, when he gets one, about provisions in the Criminal Code “that could come into play if one was of the view that the publicity got in the way of having a fair trial.”

Police responded at about 3:05 p.m. Monday to a report of a robbery in the area of Hunter and Cunard streets in Halifax.

A Halifax Regional Police news release said a man approached a woman who was parked on South Street just before 3 p.m. and offered her money to drive him to Cunard Street. When they arrived, the man threatened the woman and said he had a firearm. When she tried to get out of the car, he assaulted her and took her belongings.

A short time later, a suspect matching the man’s description entered a home on Clifton Street where two women were inside. The man, who had a brick and a broken bottle, locked the women in a bedroom. He threatened, assaulted and sexually assaulted them before they fought him off and escaped.

The man then fled the home. All three women were taken to hospital for treatment.

Leacock was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. in a backyard in the 2300 block of Hunter Street. He was taken to hospital for treatment of a medical condition and, while waiting to be seen, allegedly attempted to flee, but officers apprehended him within seconds.

He was arraigned Tuesday on two counts each of aggravated sexual assault, unlawful confinement, uttering threats and breaching a release order and single counts of robbery, assault, break and enter to commit an offence, escaping custody and possession of stolen property under $5,000. 

Public notification

In October, police advised the public that Leacock was living in the Halifax area after being released from prison. He had served all 14 years of a 2009 sentence for nine counts of robbery, six of uttering threats, two each of sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, administering a noxious substance and assault, and single counts of criminal harassment, escape from lawful custody, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, intimidation of a justice system participant, theft under $5,000, failing to comply with a court order and failing to stop at a motor vehicle accident.

Leacock was arrested this Jan. 4 after someone reported he had broken into a woman’s home on several occasions between October and December and threatened her to obtain property and money.

He was charged with extortion, fraud under $5,000, uttering threats, four counts of use and possession of stolen credit cards, unlawfully being in a dwelling house, theft under $5,000 and two counts of failing to comply with release conditions.

The Crown stayed those charges Jan. 9 after Leacock signed a one-year peace bond ordering him to have no contact with the alleged victim. The charges can be brought back before the court within a year.

Among the crimes he was convicted of in 2009, Leacock forced a friend’s daughter and her partner to smoke crack cocaine and perform sex acts after he assaulted them. He threatened to kill the couple, sexually assaulted them, and stole their bank cards and PINs.

The Parole Board of Canada, in a November 2021 decision, noted that a psychological assessment on Leacock in 2019 said “there is an unacceptably high risk that your reoffending would cause serious physical harm.”

Leacock also faces two charges of breaching an order under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and two applications for peace bonds because of fear that he may commit another serious offence. Those matters were first in court in November.