A now 31-year-old man who got a 14-year-old girl pregnant, and then while out on bail, got her pregnant again despite a no-contact order, has been given a 50-month jail sentence.
“We as a society owe it to our children to protect them from the harm caused by offenders like the appellant,” said Ontario Court Justice Vanessa Christie, in her decision released in mid-December. “Our children are at once our most valued and our most vulnerable assets. Throughout their formative years, they are manifestly incapable of defending themselves against predators like the appellant and as such, they make easy prey.
“People like the appellant know this only too well and they exploit it to achieve their selfish ends, heedless of the dire consequences that can and often do follow … To summarize, I am of the view that as a general rule, when adult offenders, in a position of trust, sexually abuse innocent young children on a regular and persistent basis over substantial periods of time, they can expect to receive mid to single digit penitentiary terms.
“When the abuse involves full intercourse, anal or vaginal, and it is accompanied by other acts of physical violence, threats of physical violence, or other forms of extortion, upper single digit to low double digit penitentiary terms will generally be appropriate. Finally, in cases where these elements are accompanied by a pattern of several psychological, emotional and physical brutalization, still higher penalties will be warranted.”
The man – who cannot be identified due to a publication ban protecting the identity of the teenager – pleaded guilty on Aug. 4 to charges of touching a minor for a sexual purpose with a part of his body (penis) between Jan. 1, 2015 and Jan. 1, 2016, in a community west of Greater Sudbury, and three counts of breach of recognizance – two for having contact with the teenager while on a bail order that included a no-contact condition, and one for having contact with the teen and her mother while under a bail condition not to do so.
Christie issued a total 50-month sentence. As the man had been in custody for 189 days, he received pre-trial custody credit of 315 days or just shy of 11 months. That leaves him with 39 months to serve.
Christie also issued a DNA order, 10-year firearms ban, and ordered that the man be listed on the national sex offenders’ registry for 20 years.
As for the Crown’s request for a Community Supervision Order that would prevent the man from visiting places where children attend such as schools and daycares, Christie did issue a two-year order preventing the man from holding a job or being in a position of trust with minors, and restricting the man from having contact with the teenager except through a family court order or lawyer for the purpose of having contact with his two children in the presence of or through a mutually agreed third party.
The Crown had sought a six-eight year jail term. The man’s lawyer had pushed for a jail sentence of 12-15 months on the sexual interference conviction, and 90 days jail for the three bail breaches.
The court had heard that the man moved into the teen’s home sometime in 2014, as he was a friend of her mother. The teen and the man knew each other before the move.
The teen and the man then spent a lot of time together and had regular, consensual sexual intercourse, which produced a baby in 2016. A short time later, the man was arrested and charged for an alleged assault on the teen’s mother. While he was not to have any contact with the teen’s mother and the teen through an undertaking, the man continued to have contact with the teenager and sexual activity continued.
In January 2017, the man was arrested and charged for the sexual activity that produced the baby. But while out on bail and not to have any contact with the teen, the man and teen continued to have contact and sexual relations.
The man was subsequently charged with breaching his bail and later released with the same condition not to have any contact with the teen. But in June, the man and teen met and he was arrested again for breaching his bail.
The man obtained bail again. A second child was born in late 2017.
The man was re-arrested in June of 2018 and has remained in jail since.
At a hearing last fall, the Crown sought to prove that the man and the teen’s mother were in a domestic relationship and therefore he played a parental role to the teenager while living there. Christie ruled in early October that the man did not play any fatherly or parental role toward the teen.
When the sentencing hearing continued in late November, it dealt with a psychological assessment of the man prepared by Dr. Paul Valiant. Tests conducted on the man, testified Valiant, found he performed in the borderline range of intelligence as far as his cognitive abilities were concerned, and that he was in the low risk range for future sexual violence.
The hearing heard that the man suffers from delusions, anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, narcissism and paranoia.
Valiant recommended that the man be referred for treatment at the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional Treatment Centre. The psychologist explained the man was somewhat narcissistic and delusional, and that he believed that being involved with a 14-year-old girl was acceptable because his intentions were good and that he would someday marry her.
In her victim impact statement, the teen said she now has major anxiety and trust issues, mostly with males, has trouble trusting family and friends, has difficulty eating and sleeping, and has trouble coping with things such as school, work and taking care of her two children.
“My life will never be the same,” she said. “I cannot get back to who I was. I hope that you can take ownership of what you have done and get some help so you do not do this to another family.”
The teen’s mother, in her victim impact statement, said what the man did resulted in the loss of her relationship with her daughter.
“I would like to be a big person and forgive you, but I can’t and you don’t deserve forgiveness, you have hurt so many people,” said the mother.
hcarmichael@postmedia.com
Twitter: @HaroldCarmichae