Niagara woman wants her alleged rapist returned from N.L. jail to stand trial
Warning: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing to some readers
A serial domestic abuser could be released quietly from a small-town jail in Newfoundland before the end of this month.
In Ontario, there's a woman dreading the possibility her alleged rapist won't be returned to face the charges against him.
"My nightmares have come back full force," said Jenny Smith. "I was starting to breathe a little easier knowing he was in lockup."
Jenny Smith is not her real name. Her identity is covered by a publication ban.
Police say she is the victim of a brutal sexual assault at the hands of Adam Budgell at her home in Welland, Ont., in October.
It's alleged he punched her, choked her and then raped her when she stopped fighting back.
Charges were laid and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Budgell left the province.
If I didn't do what he told me, he told me he was going to kill me.- Jenny Smith
He was picked up by the Mounties in Bishop's Falls, N.L., last month, where he was wanted for assaulting another former girlfriend in 2016. He pleaded guilty for those offences, and was sentenced to jail time on Feb. 15.
His mandatory release date is July 13, but documents obtained by CBC News show he is eligible for parole on March 24.
Smith hopes Budgell won't be able to walk out the front door of the Bishop's Falls Correctional Centre without a prisoner transfer van waiting outside.
"If he doesn't come back — I mean, I'll be terrified completely, because then I don't know where the hell he is."
Smith said she was unable to get a response from authorities in Ontario on what would happen when he is released.
However, five days after CBC News requested comment from Niagara Regional Police, a spokesperson said they are working on establishing a Canada-wide warrant to bring Budgell back to answer to the charges.
"Our intention is to bring Adam Budgell back to answer to his charges in Ontario," said media relations officer Phil Gavin.
'He told me he was going to kill me'
Smith's nightmares began Oct. 21, 2018.
According to her, Budgell said he was going to Dollarama to get lip balm.
Instead, she said, he went drinking.
In an interview with CBC News, she detailed a sequence of events culminating with her fleeing the house naked after being sexually assaulted. The following details have not yet been tested in a court of law.
Smith said it began after she picked him up from a bar and brought him home. He fell off the couch and struck his head and became irate, she said.
They moved to the kitchen, where she alleges he began striking her in the head and choking her from behind.
She shared the details in the present tense. Her voice didn't waver when she began crying. Instead, she spoke louder.
"I'm telling him he's going to kill me. I'm screaming at him. I'm yelling. I can't get through to him."
Smith said she threw him off her back and ran for the stairs to exit the apartment. That's where he blocked her and ordered her to go back upstairs and take off her clothes, she said.
"If I didn't do what he told me, he told me he was going to kill me. I just kept thinking if I gave him what he wanted, he would stop."
Smith described in vivid detail her version of what happened next, up to the point where she managed to escape the apartment with only a hoodie on her back and her car keys in hand.
By the time police arrived, Budgell was gone.
It wasn't his first brush with the law in Ontario, however.
Lengthy record of abuse
It's Dec. 29, 2017, nearly a year before the alleged attack on Smith.
A dark-haired woman sits in the back of a courtroom in Welland.
The woman — whom CBC has agreed not to identify due to safety concerns — is watching as her ex-boyfriend, Adam Budgell, is sentenced to six months in jail for an assault in which he held a box cutter to her throat.
It's the second time he's been charged with attacking her.
She's staring at the woman seated in front of her — Budgell's new girlfriend, Jenny Smith.
"I remember sitting in the courtroom, looking at the back of her head and thinking, 'You have no idea what you are in for,'" the woman said. "And it still eats me alive to this day that I didn't save her. That she had go through that because I didn't push harder and try to convince her that he was nuts."
Smith said she understood the charges against Budgell at the time, but believed he was taking a plea deal to make false allegations go away. She didn't believe her charming new partner could have been responsible for such violence.
CBC News has been unable to obtain Budgell's full record, but have found at least two convictions for assault in Ontario, and seven in Newfoundland and Labrador dating back to 2007.
I want my day in court. I want to have my justice.- Jenny Smith
He's currently sitting in the Bishop's Falls Correctional Centre, after being sentenced to 7½ months for assaulting Melanie Gillard in Newfoundland.
She went to the police in 2016 with allegations of abuse. Charges were laid, but Budgell was in Ontario and wasn't able to be arrested until he returned to Newfoundland.
He returned after the alleged attack on Smith, and was arrested by the RCMP in Bishop's Falls last month.
Rather than head to trial, Budgell pleaded guilty to the Gillard charges — forcible confinement, two counts of assault, two counts of assault with a weapon, and mischief under $5,000.
After he is released, he'll have to serve 12 months of probation.
Canada-wide warrant in the works
Budgell's mandatory release date is July 13, but he could get parole sooner.
The sentence left Gillard with a bitter view of the justice system. She lives with the fear of a ringing phone and a frantic voice on the other side.
"One of these days, I'm going to get a phone call saying Adam Budgell has killed somebody," she said.
According to a statement from Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Justice and Public Safety, it would be the responsibility of law enforcement officials in Ontario to request Budgell be transferred back to answer to charges stemming from the alleged attack on Smith.
It would also be their responsibility to pay for his transfer.
Gavin said the Niagara Regional Police force is working with police in Newfoundland and Labrador to make arrangements for Budgell's release.
That process would start with a Canada-wide warrant, which allows police in any jurisdiction to apprehend a suspect and hold them until a transfer can be made.
Smith said she is already worried about testifying if he is returned, but the alternative is far worse — not knowing where he is.
"I want my day in court. I want to have my justice. I deserve that," she said.
"Whether or not I physically get it, I don't know and I'll have to figure out how to deal with that. The anxiety is just insane, but the possibility of actually getting [justice] is kind of liberating, too."
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