Man harasses woman with 364 calls during a two-week period

A Steinbach area man has pleaded guilty to harrasment, wherein during a two-week period he made 364 phone calls to his ex-girlfriend.

Juden Giesbrecht, 19, started dating the victim on Dec. 18, 2024. The two are participants in El’ Dad, where they met. El’ Dad is an organization that helps people with intellectual disabilities with either housing, supports, and/or programing.

On March 4, 2025, the victim called police to report that Giesbrecht had threatened to kill her and harm her friends. She told police she began dating Giesbrecht in December and that she had given him her phone number and since then he had been calling her non-stop. She told him to stop calling so much and that a month prior “things had gotten really bad,” according to Crown attorney Jennifer Neufeld, and that “he began to be manipulative over the phone if she didn’t answer his calls, that he would threaten to harm himself if she wouldn’t speak to him or wouldn’t answer the phone.”

She also told police that on two occasions Giesbrecht had threatened to kill her which led to her breaking up with him and she eventually begin dating someone else. When Giesbrecht found out that she was dating someone else, he threatened to get his friends to attack the new boyfriend and “cut him up into little pieces,” according to Neufeld.

The victim told Giesbrecht that she was going to call the police and he told her he didn’t care and that he wouldn’t abide by any conditions to leave her alone.

Police took screen shots of calls Giesbrecht made, which showed he had called her 364 times between Feb. 16 and March 3, 2025, with one occasion where he called her 70 times during a six-hour period.

“So, obviously, this was having a pretty significant impact on (the victim),” said Neufeld. “She told the police that it was causing her some anxiety, as well as affecting her depression, that she was on medication for a couple days due to that. When I was speaking with her outside of court, she also described to me feelings of being suicidal as a result of the anxiety.”

Police arrested Giesbrecht and released him that same day. He has had no contact with her since his arrest.

Defence attorney Len Tayleur said Giesbrecht was born with ARND (Alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder) due to his mother’s addiction to drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant. His lawyer also stated he has ADHD and an IQ of 62.

He was taken from his mother when he was born and placed into care and eventually adopted. His mother has not been in his life until recently.

“I mean, I couldn’t do anything about it before, but now at least I have a chance to help because, I mean, he’s had so many people go in and out of his life right now that it’s traumatizing enough that he’s been through enough. But he’s old enough to know right from wrong, right?,” Giesbrecht’s mother told Judge Cindy Sholdice.

Giesbrecht is currently getting psychological help and is on medication. He has been living at El’ Dad since Dec. 16, 2024. He is currently enrolled in Steinbach Regional Secondary School in the life skills program with the aspiration to work at a car dealership and clean cars.

Scholdice questioned why the workers at El’ Dad were not aware of this relationship or that it had evolved into what it had, and if they were aware, that no one attempted to perhaps guide behaviour.

An El’ Dad worker was present during the hearing and she told the judge they can’t do anything because these are two are adults, but that now they are monitoring Giesbrecht’s phone calls.

“So, what I want to apologize about is, I never really meant to do that. It was just a word of anger, and I didn’t mean anything, and it was hard for me, so I just wanted to say I’m sorry for that,” Geisbrecht told the judge when given a chance to speak.

“And I also promise you this will never happen again.”

Scholdice said Giesbrecht’s actions “would have been very scary” for the victim and that although Giesbrecht is apologizing and has taken responsibility, she will continue to experience fear and it will affect her relationships going forward.

“Because when you’re in a relationship, you’ve got to trust each other and you’ve got to protect each other and that’s not what happened, and that was her experience. And she’s going to worry about that with relationships that she has in the future and that’s really too bad,” said the judge.

Scholdice agreed with Neufeld’s suggestion that Giesbrecht receive a sentence focused on rehabilitation, recommending a suspended sentence with supervised probation for one year.

“That recognizes the seriousness of his actions, but it also gives him time with a probation officer to perhaps deal with things like anger management or just learning the appropriate boundaries in those kind of relationships,” said Neufeld.

Neufeld also recommended Giesbrecht be under conditions to attend counselling and have no contact with the victim. This would mean the 19-year-old would have a criminal record; he had no prior criminal record.