A man found guilty six years ago in the 2003 kidnapping and vicious beating of a South Surrey man is scheduled to appeal his convictions in B.C. Court of Appeal today.
Daniel Lewis Allan is to present his case before Justices David Frankel, Kathryn Neilson and Elizabeth Bennett at 10 a.m.
Self-represented, he is appealing convictions of kidnapping, aggravated assault, robbery, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, break-and-enter with intent to commit assault and possession of a stolen vehicle worth more than $5,000.
Allan was found guilty of the charges in April 2006, in connection with an incident that occurred on Aug. 29, 2003.
Crown Jennifer Duncan told Peace Arch News that that it is unusual for an appeal to be heard more than six years after a conviction. Typically, they must be heard within a year.
In dealing with those acting without a lawyer, however, there is some latitude, she said.
“The self-representeds, it’s hard to crack down, because they just don’t have the skill-set,” she said.
Duncan said Allan will have to point out “pretty significant legal error” to win his appeal.
According to earlier court documents, Allan had kidnapped his cousin from a home in the 16300-block of 20 Avenue. Allan bound and gagged the 47-year-old with duct tape, put him in the trunk of a Lincoln, hit him in the head with a pipe, then dumped him at the side of a dirt road, the court heard.
During the 2005 trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, the victim testified that Allan had appeared unexpectedly at the bathroom door as he was getting ready for work and demanded to speak with him.
The victim recalled telling Allan it was a bad time, then waking up in Royal Columbian Hospital three weeks later.
He suffered a closed-head injury, a fractured skull, throat and breathing-tube damage, a deep laceration to his right hand and bruising to his face, knees, forearms and feet. He relied on a feeding tube for more than a year.
Following the conviction, Crown successfully applied to have Allan designated a dangerous offender, which carries an indeterminate jail sentence.
Allan is also appealing that designation, a date for which has not yet been set.
In granting the designation on Sept. 11, 2009, Madame Justice Mackenzie noted she was “unable to find any basis at all to conclude that there is a reasonable possibility of eventual control in the community of the risk posed by Mr. Allan.”
“There is insufficient evidence of any treatment to which this man would respond, and no evidence that he has any motivation at all to undergo treatment or to become less inclined to reoffend, obey conditions of release or develop any degree of empathy whatsoever for other people,” MacKenzie notes in her reasons for judgment.
“Any hope that he will do any of these things is unfounded on the evidence.”
MacKenzie considered Allan’s lengthy criminal history in making the ruling. It includes two armed robberies and the 1983 fatal beating of another man in London, Ont.