A B.C. Provincial Court judge delivered a veiled warning to a Burnaby man who announced in court that he had no intention of abiding by the terms of his probation.
A jury found Patrick Fox (a.k.a. Richard Riess) guilty of criminal harassment in 2017 for thousands of emails and a website Fox had used to harass his ex-wife.
He was also found guilty of weapons charges for shipping four handguns, ammunition and a disassembled Mauser rifle illegally to the U.S., where his ex-wife lives.
He was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail (minus just over two years for time he had already served) and three years of probation.
He’s now been convicted of violating the terms of his probation – twice.
In June, he was convicted of breaking probation by leaving B.C. and by getting within 100 metres of the U.S. border on March 19, 2019.
He was sentenced to one day in jail (after spending eight months in pretrial custody) and another 18 months of probation.
On Aug. 19, he was convicted of breaking his probation by publishing a new website about his wife sometime between March 7 and 21, 2019.
He was sentenced to another day in jail (after credit for time served in pretrial custody) and six more months of probation.
At a sentencing hearing the same day, Crown prosecutor Chris Johnson recommended an order to compel Fox to take down the website.
“It seems Mr. Fox did not get the message that he needed to remove this website,” Johnson said.
But before Provincial Court Judge Nancy Phillips even had time to sentence him, Fox, who represented himself during the hearing, said there was “absolutely no way” the website would come down.
Phillips nonetheless ordered him to shut it down within 48 hours and noted his display of "willfulness" at the hearing wouldn't do him him any favours if he ended up in front of the court again for breaking his probation.
“I would think a court would conclude that he would be looking at a considerable period of custody so to attempt to further deter Mr. Fox from subsequent offending behaviour that continues to create a problem in the community,” she said.
Fox contacted the NOW on Friday to point out that the website was still up and that he would not shut it down.
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