ATHABASCA - A local man managed to avoid jail after pleading guilty to breaching his probation, despite the seriousness of his offence.
In the Athabasca Court of Justice Jan. 7, Kiernan Liam Dredge pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with a probation order and one count of breaching probation as part of a joint submission between Crown prosecutor Matthew Kerr and defence counsel Denise Lightning.
On Christmas Eve, an intoxicated Dredge was banging on the door of his ex’s house, where she was living with their daughter. Despite being on a no-contact order from a previous probationary file, Dredge refused to leave when asked, and the RCMP had to be called.
The probation order stems from a previous conviction in May of 2024, when he had been placed on a 12-month conditional discharge. He was also convicted for failing to report on a probation order.
“You had a chance at a conditional discharge, and you never even reported — in terms of moral culpability, that’s pretty high,” said Justice G.A. Rice, who accepted the joint submission from Kerr and Lightning.
“It’s not like you were reporting for three months and then you missed two.”
Dredge had been incarcerated since Christmas Eve, which factored into the lighter sentence. Despite not receiving a formal jail stay, the two weeks of “dead time” was something Kerr acknowledged during his submissions.
“It’s unfortunate that he’s put himself into this position where he’s getting breaches on a discharge,: said Kerr. “
Instead, Dredge will have to pay $300 in fines, which he will have six months to pay with no days in default. He remains on the conditional discharge until May with the same conditions. Throughout the sentencing, Dredge insisted he had been wronged, first saying he had been invited over, and then insisting that he was the victim in the scenario; according to Dredge, he has been living in a shelter and on the streets since the sentencing.
“It’s a serious matter. You’re pounding on the door of a residence, you woke up your daughter,” said Rice.
“These are the very things that he was conditionally discharged on. What I did hear is that she fears for her safety. These aren’t super small breaches.”
