Mother sought for hiding assault victim
Alleged dangerous offender son was on trial for sword attack on ex-girlfriend
Don Campbell
The Ottawa Citizen
May 15, 2003
An arrest warrant was issued yesterday for Heather Matte, whose son Corey is the subject of a dangerous offender hearing. Ms. Matte is wanted for perjury and obstruction of justice: the Crown contends she hid her son’s former girlfriend, Adrienne Chin, while he was on trial for bludgeoning and slashing her with a samurai sword.
And the Crown says Ms. Matte committed perjury when she said, under oath, at recent unsuccessful bail hearing for her son, that she suffers from terminal brain cancer and wanted her son free so they could spend time together. Ms. Matte, who until this week had attended every day of her son’s hearing, has been missing since Monday and police believe she might have been tipped off that investigators were on to her. The arrest warrant was issued the same day Ms. Chin was testifying at the dangerous offender hearing about how Corey Matte attacked her with a sword, then dangled her from a sixth-floor balcony by one ankle – leaving her emotionally and physically scarred. Ms. Chin, in her testimony yesterday, spoke of a troubled, often drug-fuelled and sometimes violent relationship with Mr. Matte that ended with a vicious attack on June 24, 2000.
Ms. Chin said she and Mr. Matte had been downtown at a club that night. She said she got a ride home from a friend and was talking with a stranger inside their apartment when Mr. Matte arrived and went berserk.
“He was very upset and swearing and yelling and calling me all kinds of names and the next thing I see is a sword in his hands,” said Ms. Chin. "Then he was threatening me, saying he was going to kill me. He told me to kneel down on mats in his martial arts area and he threatened to cut my head off.
“I was crying so much and he had the blade to my neck and he made swinging motions like he was going to cut my head off.” Ms. Chin said she was flailing her arms in self-defence and the blade cut her left forearm and hands. She said Mr. Matte then pointed the blade at her chest and gouged her with its tip, permanently scarring her. “I grabbed the blade with both hands and he pulled the sword from my grasp, slicing all my fingers,” said Ms. Chin, under questioning from assistant Crown attorney James Cavanagh. “I was bleeding and bleeding and I didn’t know what was going to happen next.” Ms. Chin said she ran around the Donald Street apartment with Mr. Matte in pursuit with the sword. Twice, he jabbed her from behind, wounding her back and buttocks. The pair eventually ended up on the balcony.
“At that point I had fallen and I really don’t know how I got up,” said Ms. Chin, who said the next thing she knew was Mr. Matte was dangling her from the balcony, holding only one of her ankles. “He asked me if I really wanted to die.” Mr. Chin’s testimony continues today. Mr. Matte, now 27, was found guilty of attacking Ms. Chin, who was believed to be dead until she shocked the trial by walking into the courtroom in the middle of the proceedings, then denied Mr. Matte had attacked her.
Justice Bernard Ryan acquitted Mr. Matte of attempted murder, but found him guilty of aggravated assault and also convicted him of uttering threats and possession of a weapon, namely samurai swords.
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