PICTOU – A homeless man says he wants to make a Nova Scotia prison his home and committed crimes in the hopes of becoming incarcerated.
Dennis Gary Stewart, 70, of no fixed address, told Pictou provincial court that he’d attempted to break the law and get arrested 15 times in the past, but police refused to charge him.
“I’m homeless, I have no place for an abode whatsoever,” he told Judge Del Atwood Monday in Pictou provincial court. “I used my criminal record in order to get arrested and breach a court order so I could appear before you. I tried to breach my court order on 15 occasions, but they wouldn’t charge me.”
He was brought into court in sheriff’s custody on Monday morning, however, after the New Glasgow Police Internet Child Exploitation Unit arrested him on Sunday around 4:30 p.m. Police had received a complaint of Internet use, said Const. Ken MacDonald with New Glasgow Police.
“Somebody noticed some suspicious Internet activity and called police,” MacDonald said Monday.
Stewart now faces charges of sexual interference with a person under the age of 15, inviting a person under the age of 16 to touch his penis, using a computer with the intention of committing an offence, two breach of undertaking charges and trafficking clonazepam, a drug usually used as an anti-anxiety treatment.
Stewart told the court that he had no intentions of entering any pleas on the charges or elect a mode of trial.
“In other words, very politely, I’m telling you where I was turned away from community services, my intention is to make the Lower Sackville jail my permanent place of abode,” Stewart said.
The provincial Crown has not elected how it will proceed on the provincial charges, but the drug charge will proceed indictably.
Stewart is being held in custody and when Atwood asked if he was consenting to be remanded until his next court appearance on Jan. 18, he said he didn’t consent to anything.
“I’m telling you that on a permanent basis, until such time as my demise, I don’t want to be released at all,” he added.
Atwood said he would take Stewart’s statements as an indication that he did not wish a show cause hearing and urged him to consult with a lawyer.
“It’s important you contact a lawyer,” Atwood said. “I understand all you want is to be remanded permanently, but I can’t order that.”
Stewart, however, refused Atwood’s suggestion.
“I have no intention, no interest and no desire in retaining a lawyer,” he said.
Stewart will be back in court on Jan. 18, when he has other charges on the docket.
