Former Woodstock mayor handed concurrent sentence while serving prison term

Former Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch attended court virtually on Tuesday for sentencing on prior sexual assault and assault convictions. Reta Ismail reports.

Former Woodstock mayor Trevor Birtch has been handed an eight-month sentence after pleading guilty to assault and sexual assault in a case involving a former intimate partner.

Birtch appeared virtually from a detention centre in Kingston on Tuesday, where he is currently serving a four-year, eight-month prison sentence stemming from a separate sexual assault conviction.

During a sentencing hearing at the London courthouse, Justice Marc Garson accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence counsel calling for an eight-month sentence to be served concurrently with Birtch’s existing prison term, followed by 18 months of probation.

The 51-year-old received four months for assault and four months for sexual assault. Because the sentences will be served concurrently with his current prison term, they will not add additional time to his incarceration.

In accepting the joint submission, Garson cited several mitigating factors, including Birtch’s guilty plea, which spared the complainant from having to testify and avoided a lengthy trial.

While delivering his decision, Garson emphasized the serious impact of intimate partner violence.

“Offences of this nature are not only harmful to the victim, but they are harmful to society,” Garson told the court. “Offences of this nature shatter a woman’s sense of privacy, safety, dignity and autonomy.”

The judge added that courts must continue to send a message of denunciation and deterrence to those who commit similar offences.

Advocates who attended the hearing said the sentence and the judge’s comments underscore the seriousness of intimate partner violence.

“He is serving time in jail. We don’t see that very often,” said Jennifer Dunn, executive director of the London Abused Women’s Centre. “I think it speaks to the position of power that he held and the downfall from that in both cases.”

As part of the sentence, Birtch is prohibited from contacting the victim and remains subject to a 10-year weapons prohibition order.

Between the two sexual assault cases, Birtch was also convicted of impaired driving in February 2025.

Birtch declined an opportunity to address the court before sentencing.