A lifetime of misery – for himself and for others – has led to a Whitehorse man being labelled a dangerous offender.

Herman Thorn, 51, appeared in territorial court Thursday morning to face his fate after pleading guilty to a litany of charges.

Thorn, originally from Saskatchewan, is the first person to be declared a dangerous offender here in a few years, noted Crown prosecutor Noel Sinclair.

In 2017 or 2018, he said, the rules were changed by top courts in Canada on how the dangerous offender designation was to be applied.

The new rules tightened up the system, he said, making it more onerous to work through the process.

Thorn was convicted of a series of assaults in Whitehorse, including on two corrections officers last year.

The Whitehorse Correctional Centre guards tried to intervene when Thorn was brawling with another inmate – and he injured both of them.

One was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. One suffered a knee injury.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg, though, Sinclair said as he talked to reporters about the case.

He called Thorn’s unbelievably long record for assaults “terrible”.

The official number of offences is listed at 22.

Judge Peter Chisholm presided over the case, and he agreed with that assessment.

At the same time, Chisholm acknowledged Thorn’s tragic upbringing. None of his immediate family members, the judge said, has had a natural death. Thorn’s only remaining sibling is serving time in a penitentiary.

Thorn’s father killed his mother, setting much of the chain of tragedy in play.

Thorn himself was convicted of manslaughter, after killing a family member in a substance-induced rampage.

Substance abuse is a constant theme in Thorn’s crimes and convictions. A psychological evaluation indicated his inability to regulate his behaviour to an acceptable level is inextricably tied to his substance abuse. The more he drinks, the more violent he becomes.

It’s a predictable pattern, stated the doctor who wrote the report.

Equally of concern, the report stated, was the inability of Thorn to take responsibility for his actions and to show remorse.

He constantly blames everyone else for his innumerable violent activities, while accepting none for himself.

Thorn, the judge said, also seems to have no self-awareness or ability to predict how his rages will affect others or lead to consequences for himself, as most adults have.

The report also said it was possible but unlikely that Thorn’s rampages would diminish as he gets older.

By his age, most people show some moderation, if not outright decline, in aggressive behaviour.

Thorn has shown no such decline, the analyst wrote, and there is no guarantee he will at this point.

“He may not follow the normal course,” the psychologist wrote.

Thorn’s crimes reach back decades. He was first charged with criminal offences in 1988. Assaults, both against family members and strangers, have been a constant in his life.

In one apparently unprovoked assault on a stranger, he bit part of the man’s nose off.

The two had been acquainted, but the summary of the case didn’t indicate anything other than a random rage. The acquaintance was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, court heard.

He fled from Thorn, and stumbled across two police officers, who intervened.

In the case of the family member Thorn killed, Thorn had no memory of what happened. He was so intoxicated he couldn’t remember slashing the man’s throat, and struggling with other family members who tried to stop him.

In another extreme example of his volatility, police were once called to his home only to find Thorn’s wife fleeing from him and jumping, naked, out of a window. The temperature outside at the time was -30 C.

Within a week of his completing one sentence another time, the offender was involved in domestic violence within a week of being let out. That sent him back to prison fairly quickly.

Many of these events occurred either in Alberta or in the Northwest Territories.

In 2013, he escaped being designated a dangerous offender after the nose-biting incident only to go on to commit a plethora of crimes, mostly serious assaults.

During Thorn’s many stints in jail and prison, the judge said, he has been provided with many therapy and counselling sessions.

Generally, Thorn had done well with the sessions, reports indicate, but he was totally unable to translate what he had learned into a real world setting.

“Thirty years of treatment and programming has been ineffective,” the judge noted, reading from the report.

The psychological evaluation suggested Thorn suffers from anti-social personality disorder as well as substance abuse problems.

There is no reason to think Thorn is completely untreatable, the judge said, but there is a poor chance of risk reduction.

“There is a persistent pattern of aggressive behaviour,” the judge said. “There is a history of reactive violence. His behaviour appears to be intractable.”

All of that, Chisholm said, makes Thorn a constant potential danger to the public, and meets the standard for being declared a dangerous offender.

Thorn had been growing visibly agitated as the judge talked on.

His legs grew restless as the proceeding continued, under the watch of five courtroom security staff, and his hands clenched repeatedly.

The judge placed Thorn under an indeterminate sentence, which potentially means he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Sinclair said an indeterminate sentence means Thorn will have to wait seven years to apply for parole.

The National Parole Board will then have to decide if his request will be granted, even in part.

An indeterminate sentence and the dangerous offender designation is the same thing that some very high-profile offenders, such as Ontario multiple murderer Paul Bernardo, have been sentenced to.