Woman abuser Kevin Evans pleads guilty to assaults on ex-girlfriends
While sentenced to jail time, 29-year-old released on time served
He hit them, manipulated them, hurled insults and berated them with accusations of infidelity — and while the cases involving Kevin Evans's ex-partners are separate, they are eerily similar in detail.
Evans, 29, was originally scheduled for trial but instead pleaded guilty to six charges involving two women when his case was called in provincial court in St. John's on Thursday.
Evans appeared not in person but via video from Her Majesty's Penitentiary.
The women he abused, however, did show up, hearing in detail for the first time what Evans had done to each of them.
Lindsay Plank is from Ontario, where she met Evans on a dating site.
She moved to Newfoundland with him in April 2018, and almost immediately faced physical and verbal abuse.
The details were laid out in an agreed statement of facts.
Punches thrown, charges withdrawn
On one occasion in June 2018, Evans grabbed Plank's phone while they were at a bar on George Street, and accused her of cheating.
It escalated when he grabbed her arms and tossed her against a wall.
Weeks later on Canada Day weekend, Evans punched Plank in the jaw, resulting in her head bouncing off the glass of the inside of his vehicle.
Again, in a jealous rage, Evans then "went to town on her ribs."
While those two assaults happened on different dates, the charges were whittled down to one because of the short time between the two.
"It's frustrating because I know they are separate times and matters, so to me I think they should have been put through," Plank told CBC News of the withdrawn charges.
"But he pleaded guilty to some of them, so that's better than none."
The violence only escalated.
Bruises and scars
In October 2018, the couple moved into the top floor of a home that had a basement apartment. It would end up being a way for Plank to eventually leave safely.
One evening, the court heard, Evans was drinking and began accusing Plank of cheating on him.
He began "whaling" on her, grabbing her head, pushing her against brick and leaving her gasping for air. Plank would lose consciousness.
Her boss would later tell police Plank tried to cover her bruises that were "like tops of fingers" with scarves and makeup.
When Plank spoke to police in Ontario about another ex-girlfriend who was allegedly being abused by Evans, details of her own story came to light.
That was in January 2019.
Also in 2019, the court heard, Evans began abusing another woman he was dating.
And like with Plank, the accusations of cheating and name-calling were constant.
On one occasion Evans put his knee to the woman's throat, pinned her down and accused her of having an affair.
He left her crying in the fetal position.
From there, she was made to wear loose-fitting clothes and was controlled by his words and actions.
Evans, in the summer of 2019, began punching her and poured a drink on her.
Other times, the court heard, he choked her, grabbed her by the hair, kicked her and dug his fingers into her ribs.
Fearful her life would end, the woman went to the hospital, and Evans was handcuffed and arrested.
'Feels very badly'
During the sentencing hearing, Evans spoke only to plead guilty and agree with the facts being read into the court.
He grasped a cross hanging from his neck and looked to the sky. His lawyer noted Evans attended bible study in jail and that "he feels very badly," at which time the women he abused snorted.
The court was told Evans had a difficult upbringing and was adopted when he was a child.
He attributes his crimes to his substance abuse.
Judge Mike Madden accepted the recommended sentence of jail time from the Crown and defence, but made the seriousness of the crimes apparent when he addressed Evans for sentencing.
Madden made note of Evans's apparent drug and alcohol problems and the fact he might — though he hasn't been diagnosed — have fetal alcohol syndrome.
"No man has the right to tell a woman who to talk to. No man has the right to tell a woman what clothes to wear," Madden said.
"And certainly, no man has a right to subject his partner to violence."
Another case to come
Evans served 169 days in jail awaiting a resolution to his case. He was given time already served, and was released Thursday.
He will be on probation for 18 months. Six of those months will be spent with an ankle bracelet, making him one of the first offenders to be placed under the province's new electronic monitoring program.
There is another case pending against Evans in Ontario, in which he is alleged to have assaulted on multiple occasions and sexually assaulted another ex-partner.
The woman's name is concealed by a publication ban but in an email to CBC News she said, "The three of us won't be the last. He will do this again."
"I can only hope that the courts in Ontario take into account that he did this to two other women," she wrote.
Those allegations have not yet been tested in court.
Now that Evans has been handed his punishment, Plank is preparing to focus on herself.
"I'm definitely going to have to get myself back in a better mindset," she said.
"He will get out. My mental state needs to be put first."
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