Paroled Toronto sex offender faces new charges of drugging, sexually assaulting woman

Article content

Chow was released on conditions a week after his arrest, but was arrested again in March 2013 after police went through a “painstaking and thorough investigation” to identify and interview 18 of the victims — none of whom were aware “that they were subject to this degrading and humiliating activity while being videotaped.”

Article content

Upon learning what happened to her, one woman “became physically ill in the waste basket of the interview room,” the decision reads.

Article content

Many of the victims provided victim impact statements to the court, some of whom chose to read them aloud in front of a then 62-year-old Chow at his November 2015 sentencing.

Article content

“I have had numerous hospitalizations for suicide attempts and post-traumatic disorder from what happened to me,” one victim stated. “He, of all people, a medical professional, purposely and knowingly preyed on me numerous times.”

Article content

“When I think of you, my chest gets tight, I feel sick to my stomach,” another offered. “I have had some major anxiety attacks when thinking about what you have done to not only me, but many other women and young ladies.”

Article content

Article content

Another said she felt sick watching her own video statement in court.

Article content

“When I got home that was all I could think about, I cried constantly and didn’t even want to hold my daughter because I didn’t think I was good enough,” she said.

Article content

Chow also addressed the court during the sentencing hearings, apologizing to his victims and calling his actions “callous, heinous, selfish and degrading.”

Article content

According to the decision, Chow immigrated from Hong Kong on a student visa to attend York University, where he met his wife of over 30 years, with whom he shares an adult daughter. He’d been running his pharmacy for 17 years when he was first arrested, at which time he was about 59 years old.

Article content

Chow’s psychiatric evaluation determined that he started drinking significantly more three years earlier following a prostate cancer diagnosis, including while at work. He “presented with a major depression without psychotic features,” alcoholism and paraphilia, specifically “sexual sadism,” one the psychiatrist said will now be a “lifelong disorder.”

Article content

“He stated that if a person in these circumstances were to re-offend, it would more likely be the same type of offence, and that once these offences start, they can escalate over time,” Mulligan wrote.

Article content

Article content

Recommended treatment for such a disorder, the psychiatrist said, is counselling and drugs that will lead to a pharmacological castration, neither of which can “be made mandatory or ordered by the court,” requiring Chow’s buy-in. The psychiatrist deemed him a low risk to offend provided he did.

Article content

Another psychopathy checklist found Chow externalized blame, lacked empathy for victims and that “he may resort to these maladaptive strategies when faced with future stressors or recurrence of his major depressive disorder.”

Article content

The judge said his assessments show signs of someone who lacked “insight into their conduct” and cited a section of Chow’s letter as an example.

Article content

“I indulged my sexual fantasy to the fullest degree. I wanted to feel young again by associating with young escorts to reassert my virility,” he wrote.

Article content

“I am not misogynistic. My actions were never meant to harm, nor were they carried out with violent, malicious or criminal intent. They were pure sexual fantasy merely, nothing more. I was naïve and ignorant not to have realized the criminality of my actions.”