A woman released after Kelowna Abuser was sentenced to a significant prison period – Kelowna News

Photo: File photo

A woman in Kelowna, who suffered a significant abuse at the hands of her ex -partner, finally felt relief when she saw him arrested at the beginning of this year.

35 -year -old David Matraj was convicted last year in three cases of assault causing damage to the body, one number of assaults and one sexual assault, and in January he was sentenced to four years in prison. Last week he received an additional 18-month sentence for assault causing body harm, unlawful closure and assault by choking.

Demonstrations result from incidents that took place in 2022 towards the same woman.

While the routine ban on the victim’s identity was previously in both cases, 32 -year -old Delainey Chisholm successfully submitted a request to remove the ban so that she could tell her story.

“After seeing him in an orange overalls behind this small Plexiglas case in the courtroom, it was really justified, knowing that he did not hurt anyone … It was really releasing,” said Chisholm Castanet. “I am so glad that I did not submit these times, that I just wanted to leave everything.”

The couple with February and July 2022 after they met in the Kelowna store, where Matraj was Chisholm’s superior.

Photo: contribution

Delainey Chisholm

Chisholm testified that during a date Matraj would attacked her four to five times a week, but he claims that abuse escalated over time. She said that it started with catching a shirt during the fighting and then the face. In time, he began to choke her.

“Every form of unwanted physical contact is abuse … If I could come back and tell myself one thing, it would be the first time when he caught my shirt, I should escape because it doesn’t end. There are too many once – she said.

Chisholm left Matraj for the first time at the beginning of July 2022. Despite the fact that she just wanted to “put it”, friends convinced her to go to the police. The first set of charges was against him in October.

“He almost killed me”

Chisholm explained that despite so many abuse of his hand, she was still in the “bond of trauma” from Matraj at that time.

“It doesn’t make sense for a person who doesn’t have it … It doesn’t matter what they have done to you, you just want them because you are addicted to them,” she said.

“I don’t know where my head was at the moment, but after a week or two I missed him and tried to catch him to talk to him.”

They began to talk again in August, in violation of his release conditions, but after a few weeks Chisholm returned in a terrifying situation on the night of August 30, when Matraj was at her home.

“It just escalated to such an extent that he almost killed me … I was able to call the police and whispered when he was in the bathroom, but I left the phone connected to the connection and hid it behind my bed. So this fight was recorded, screaming and crying and everything – she said.

The police arrived within 17 minutes, found her with a “battered bloody lip and blood on the floor.” Matraj was arrested again, but was released 10 days later.

This incident is the second set of charges, which led to an additional 18-month sentence.

“Although the conviction was not what I wanted was better than nothing,” said Chisholm with an 18-month sentence.

I wanted to give up

Two separate matters against Matraj were harassed by delays and hypertension, which Chisholm says, and many times during the trial she wanted to give up.

“I wanted to say so many times” fucking it, I finished it. ” But now, when I see that it paid off, I’m so, I’m so glad that I didn’t fit, I didn’t give up – she said.

“I was like the cycle ends with me, I’m going to stick to it because I don’t want other girls to go through it from David’s hands.

“If I hadn’t pressed the allegations and I didn’t go with them, if another girl wounded with him, I would blame myself forever. If, God forbid, he will hurt someone else when he comes out of prison, at least I will know that I did everything I could prevent it. “

Matraj was previously placed on two peacekeeping bonds in 2017 in connection with another woman with whom he was in a relationship and was convicted in 2018 for violating these conditions.

Permanent nightmares

Chisholm says that she struggled with suicide thoughts after her experiences with Matraj and was hospitalized in the autumn of 2023, where PTSD was diagnosed with her.

She says she was afraid that Matraj would try to kill her when he was on a deposit, especially after his conviction in May last year.

“I still had nightmares that he broke into my house and stabbed me and all these things,” she said. “It’s nice to know that he is not there, he can no longer hurt anyone.”

Chisholm is now focusing on raising his children and continuing his life. She got married last fall.

“Persistent, repetitive and escalating violence”

While Matraj’s defender in January argued that his client should completely avoid prison, Judge Lisa Wyatt said that “without hesitation” he sentenced him to a four -year prison, taking into account the circumstances of his crimes.

“Crimes included persistent, repetitive and growing violence within a few months, culminating sexual assault,” said Judge Wyatt.

“The criminal humiliated the victim, treated her like his property, when he suggested that his actions were not assaulting because she was his girlfriend and prevented her treatment.”

Quoting the previous court decision, Judge Wyatt said: “Home abuse, because intimate partner violence is also known, Imperils society as a whole … it is behavior that tears in the structure of our society itself.”