David William Ramsay

David William Ramsay (1943-2008) was a Canadian lawyer and judge notorious for being sent to prison for sexual assault on minors, some of whom appeared before him in court.

Ramsey was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1943 and moved to Port Alberni, British Columbia with his family after the war. He received a degree in Education from the University of Victoria in 1964 and taught elementary school for two years. He then returned to the University of Victoria from which he received a law degree in 1971. He articled under the late Harold Bogle, Q.C., in Prince George, British Columbia, following which he worked for a year at the firm of Phelps & Voyer in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. In 1973 he was hired by the British Columbia Legal Aid Society and returned to Prince George to open its first legal aid office. In 1975 he returned to private practice. He was appointed to the Provincial Court in 1991. He was married and had four children.^[1]

During his tenure as judge, Ramsay on multiple occasions picked up aboriginal girls as young as twelve and had sex with them. He insisted on not using a condom, and on one occasion, when the girl resisted, he became enraged and smashed her head against the dashboard of his car. Several of the young women with whom he had sex appeared before him in court.^[2] Ramsay met his downfall on May 28, 2002 when the young woman whom he had beaten for objecting to his not wearing a condom appeared before him in court in a child custody case. She became hysterical, ran out of the courtroom, and finally told people trying to console her what Ramsay had done to her.^[3]

Because of Ramsay's position as a judge, prosecution was not simple. A special prosecutor, Dennis Murray, Q.C., was appointed. After a lengthy search to find a judge with no connection to Ramsay, Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm of the British Columbia Supreme Court was appointed as judge.

Ramsay was indicted in August, 2002.^[4] Six weeks later, in September 2002, he attempted suicide.^[1] On May 3, 2003 he pleaded guilty to five of the ten charges in the indictment; the other charges were stayed. He was convicted of one count of breach of trust, one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm, and three counts of buying sex from a child. In June, 2004 he was sentenced to seven years in prison.^[2][5]

Three years into his sentence, Ramsay applied unsuccessfully for day parole in 2007 on the grounds that he had terminal cancer.^[5] He died in Dorchester Prison on January 19, 2008.^[6]

References