Victoria police have arrested a London, Ont., man convicted of manslaughter in the death of his 10-week-old son.
Rourke Desmanche was wanted by Corrections Canada for allegedly violating the conditions of his parole. He was arrested early Sunday by a Victoria police dog handler, who recognized Desmanche from a Canada-wide warrant and stopped him.
At first, it appeared that Desmanche was going to run away. But when the officer indicated he would release the dog, Desmanche complied with the officer’s direction.
Desmanche was taken into custody without further incident. Other officers arrived to assist the officer during the arrest.
Desmanche was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2013 for the death of his son, Kurious George, who was shaken to death.
According to the London Free Press, Desmanche was a gang member and drug dealer who wasn’t even supposed to be near his infant son in the summer of 2010, when he cut little Kurious George Rose-Desmanche’s life short.
Desmanche and Tiffany Rose, 30, the baby’s mother, lived in London with their son, even though child-protection authorities had banned the father from the home.
He was dealing drugs from the address and had already hurt the child by shaking him before the final, fatal assault on Aug. 2 that year, the London Free Press reported.
When he found the child limp and not breathing, Desmanche fled to Saskatchewan.
Rose had the baby taken off life support after 25 days. He had suffered catastrophic brain injuries.
Justice Helen Rady noted when she sentenced Desmanche in 2013 on the manslaughter charge that he hadn’t been “a model prisoner” in pre-trial custody.
Desmanche had been in the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre for three years before his sentencing. He had been written up and caught with contraband.
He had requested protective custody because of the nature of the charges he faced involving his son.
Rady sentenced Desmanche to one year for a previous assault on the baby; those head injuries were found during an autopsy.
For time served, his manslaughter sentence was knocked down to less than seven years.
Desmanche remains in custody pending an appearance in Victoria provincial court.
