Ontario's highest court increases sentence to 15 years for man who left pregnant former girlfriend for dead in 2019 attack
She thought she was going to die that night.
It was only her own brave ingenuity that saved Christina Elgin from becoming yet another victim of domestic murder.
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But when her attacker was sentenced to just seven years in prison in February 2022, with just 26 months left to serve after pre-trial credits, I wrote that it was a slap in the face to her and other survivors of intimate partner violence.
What message did that send?
Not a very good one, the Ontario Court of Appeal has agreed.
In a rare move, Ontario’s highest court has more than doubled the sentence for Corey Cunningham to 15 years, calling the term imposed by Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein for the attempted murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend “manifestly unfit.”
“This court has continually emphasized that denunciation and deterrence are the paramount sentencing objectives for attempted murder in the domestic context,” the panel wrote. “He diminished the significance of these objectives by placing undue weight on rehabilitation.”
Elgin, 35, is feeling relieved, vindicated and stronger than ever.
“Now I can say I finally got some justice,” she said in an interview. “I would love to thank the Crown for their efforts to make this possible and noticing the errors the sentencing judge made.
“Denunciation and deterrence have to be taken more seriously than rehabilitation.”
The attempt on her life was calculated and cold.
The couple met on Facebook and began dating after Canada Day 2019. The on-again, off-again relationship ended when she told the father of two she was pregnant in August and wanted to keep the baby.
When Cunningham stopped by her apartment on Kingston Rd. near Morningside Ave. unannounced on Oct. 11, Elgin believed they were still friends who had agreed to co-parent. She didn’t know he’d entered her building wearing a mask, but she noticed something was “off” as he paced her home while wearing sunglasses and shoes.
When he offered to give her a back massage, she sat on the floor at his feet. He was so rough that she joked he’d be fired as a masseuse.
Then she looked back and saw Cunningham putting on a glove. Elgin felt something wet, as if someone had poured water over her. But it wasn’t water.
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It was her own blood as he plunged a knife into her neck and shoulder.
As she collapsed to the floor, the quick-thinking victim knew her only hope was in playing dead to get him to stop. She held her breath, counted to 120 and even gave a “last” body shake she’d seen on TV shows.
Cunningham kicked her to make sure she was dead, rummaged through her pockets to steal $100 and her phone, and then called a friend, “Yo, it’s done.”
It almost was. Two of the three stab wounds to her neck were three centimetres deep and narrowly missed her aorta and jugular vein.
“I just want to say thank you to the surgeons at the trauma department at Sunnybrook who saved my life,” she said.
Elgin, who believes she miscarried right after the attack, still has a bone chip wedged on her spine but removal would mean a 50% chance she’d end up paralyzed. She also suffers from PTSD and still can’t feel parts of her neck and head.
And then there’s the all-encompassing fear.
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If his prison term hadn’t been increased, Cunningham’s release was imminent and Elgin was already frantically thinking about changing her name and disappearing so he can never find her again.
It’s a constant state of fear that consumes so many victims of domestic violence and their loved ones, Elgin explains, where they feel they need to change their identities, their addresses, whatever it takes to stay safe.
“This world we live in needs to change,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to run.”
Elgin is hoping this appeal decision is the beginning of that change.
“I just want to show other victims of domestic violence that there is hope and justice in Canada’s justice system,” she said. “I feel like I can finally breathe.”
mmandel@postmedia.com