The National Parole Board says a man convicted of five sexual assaults in Edmonton appears to be on “a good course toward change,” but Matthew McKnight has more work to do in the areas of “insight and accountability” before being granted full parole.
“Moving to a more expansive form of release at this early stage, we believe, would be risky,” board member Jonathan Lemieux told Mr. McKnight after a hearing on Friday.
Instead, the board granted Mr. McKnight day parole for six months, to show “that you can apply your skills in the community.” In that period, Mr. McKnight will live at a halfway house in Vancouver, and is not allowed to return to Edmonton.
A psychological risk assessment found Mr. McKnight to be an “average” risk to reoffend, compared with other sex offenders.
In his two-hour parole hearing, Mr. McKnight, now 37, maintained he hadn’t intentionally sexually assaulted any of the women, but that a lifestyle of drinking, promiscuity, loneliness, negative influences and deep-seated anxiety contributed to a situation where, “I was clearly not giving any care or thought to the question of consent.”
“I cannot tell you I knew at the time I was raping them,” he said. “I thought I had consent, but I was wrong.”
Mr. McKnight at one point faced 26 counts of sexual and physical assault against women he met while working as a promoter in the Edmonton bar scene. He ultimately went to trial on 13 charges of sexual assault, and was convicted by a jury of five counts in early 2020. After appeals by both the defence and Crown, Mr. McKnight was sentenced to 11 years. Federal offenders are automatically eligible for parole after one-third of their sentence.
During the trial, the Crown argued Mr. McKnight was a calculated sexual predator who used his position in the Edmonton bar scene to incapacitate young women with alcohol, or in some cases a drug, to sexually assault them.
Women testified to being terrified and ill, sometimes blacking out, unable to move or call out to people elsewhere in the apartment. One woman described waking up in Mr. McKnight’s shower covered in vomit and menstrual blood. Several of the women become so distraught during their testimony that court had to be adjourned.
Supreme Court of Canada upholds acquittal in sex assault case revolving around consent
“I didn’t know if I was going to die. I was not in control of my body,” one woman said.
“Matt told me it was my fault. I was just so ashamed,” said another.
At trial, Mr. McKnight said all the women who testified against him were all either mistaken or lying.
Asked by parole board member Lisa Graham whether he thought his behaviour was predatory, Mr. McKnight said he can now see there were “predatory aspects” and added that, if he had a daughter, he wouldn’t want her drinking around someone like him.
“I don’t hear you taking accountability,” Mr. Lemieux said at one point.
Mr. McKnight denied that he got pleasure from his victims being unconscious or incapacitated, and explained the bruising some women suffered by saying he was bigger and stronger, and “more forceful than I realized.”
In addition to sex offender programming and therapy, Mr. McKnight told the Parole Board he’s taken finance and English classes in prison, done eight Bible study courses, read more than 620 books, and memorized passages of poetry and literature, with the goal of becoming a more thoughtful and knowledgeable person.
He said he’s also read and reread statements by his victims, which he described as a “harrowing experience” that makes his heart race. No letters from victims were read aloud at the parole board hearing, and no victims made statements.
Mr. McKnight said when he gets out of prison he wants to work, spend time with his parents and positive supports, and try “at least in some small way to atone for the harm I’ve caused, and bring something good into this world.”
Conditions of Mr. McKnight’s parole include abstaining from alcohol and drugs, having no contact with any of his victims, and reporting any relationships with women.
Jana G. Pruden