Dream blamed in sex assault

By KEVIN MARTIN, QMI Agency

CALGARY -- Calgarian Gary Gordon Yuen may have been acting out a dream when he brutally beat and sexually assaulted a $1,000-a-night prostitute, a sleep expert said Tuesday.

And Dr. Colin Shapiro, a Toronto-based psychiatrist, said Yuen’s violent dream may have been triggered by a wrestling movie he watched hours earlier.

Shapiro told defence lawyer Balfour Der his client may have been experiencing REM behaviour disorder when he took a baseball bat and badly beat his victim before sexually assaulting her.

The disorder “allows a person to get up and act out their dreams,” Shapiro said.

Unlike most sleepers, those who experience the condition don’t lose muscle function when they drop into rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, he said.

“Muscles are, by and large, switched off (during normal sleep),” Shapiro told Der.

Shapiro said testing and his history showed Yuen is subject to incidents of parasomnia, a state which allows sleepers to complete tasks normally associated with being awake.

Sufferers don’t have any memory of what they did once they awaken.

“In my view the constellation of evidence points strongly towards this being a parasomnia activity,” Shapiro said, of the attack on Yuen’s victim.

Yuen, 47, faces four charges, including aggravated assault and unlawful confinement in connection with a Feb. 11, 2007, incident in his 4 Ave. N.W. home.

The professional engineer attacked a $1,000-a-night prostitute he regularly hired, repeatedly striking her with a baseball bat, choking her unconscious, removing her clothing and sexually assaulting her.

The woman eventually ran naked from Yuen’s home and was rescued by a passing motorist, who took her to police.

A doctor testified the victim, who can’t be named, suffered injuries severe enough to kill her had she not been treated.

Shapiro agreed with Der the accused’s actions in having sex with a woman he just turned into a bloodied pulp was abnormal.

“It is bizarre behaviour and bizarreness is a factor in many parasomniac behaviours.”

Under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Pam McCluskey, Shapiro agreed the vast majority of parasomniac activities are of a brief duration.

His testimony is ongoing.

From: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2010/06/15/14403651.html