The son and daughter of Denis Florian Ratte gave decidedly different views when they provided victim impact statements during a sentencing hearing Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court.
Gabriel Pelletier, 29, pleaded for leniency in deciding how long Ratte, 58, should spend behind bars before he's eligible to apply for parole for the second degree murder of his wife, Wendy Ann Twiss Ratte.
A jury found Ratte guilty of the act on Nov. 3 in connection with her 1997 disappearance and he automatically received a life sentence for the conviction. However, Justice Glen Parrett must still decide on how long Ratte must serve before eligibility for parole and is looking at a range of 10 to 25 years.
"All 12 jurors ruled against him but I have enough reason and enough doubt, as a victim, to want my father to spend as little time in prison as possible," Pelletier said.
But a tearful and sobbing Anna Sieppert, 30, said Ratte "deserves to spend the rest of his life in his self-made hell," characterized her father as self-centred and full of deceit and was clearly convinced he committed the act.
"I cannot understand why murder was chosen over divorce," she said.
The absence of her mother had a deep and profound impact on Sieppert's life, from poor grades in high school to a somber graduation ceremony to a stress-related stomach ailment to years of poverty and pain.
