Crown seeks 18 months for ‘right-hand man’

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The Crown has asked for a sentence of 18 months in jail for the man described as the “right-hand man” in the systemic physical abuse of children at a southern Manitoba Old Order Mennonite community.

Crown attorney Jim Ross described the offender as the second-most blameworthy for the beating and “brainwashing” of the children.

“The children describe him as responsible for the harshest treatment,” Ross said as sentencing submissions were made on Wednesday in Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench. “His leather shop was often used for punishments.”

Defence lawyer Scott Newman suggested a jail sentence of six to 12 months. He disagreed with the Crown’s characterization of his client as a “lieutenant” or “right-hand man.”

Rather, Newman said the offender was caught up in an emotional misbelief that the community had a sexual abuse problem.

“This is an accused and a community that was in large part living outside the laws of God, and living outside the laws of man,” Newman said, adding his client has responded well to parenting counselling.

The 32-year-old man assaulted three boys and two girls — aged five to 15 years — and a 21-year-old man. The assaults were committed between January 2010 and May 2013

In early to mid-2013, over allegations of widespread physical abuse, Child and Family Services apprehended 42 community children from 10 families who lived at the insular horse-and-buggy community.

The Brandon Sun is not naming the community, nor the accused, in respect for previous publication bans that protect the identity of the victims.

Altogether, 13 adult community members were charged with assault and assault with a weapon.

Ross said that, of the 59 children who lived at the community at the time, 25 gave police statements that alleged excessive discipline.

At various times and at the hands of a number of adults, children were strapped, punched, kicked, made to stand still for days with little food, whipped and shocked with a cattle prod.

All but four of the children who were seized have been returned to their parents after they took parenting courses and agreed to limit physical discipline.

Eight adults had their charges dropped in exchange for a requirement for further counselling, and one woman received three years probation.

Of the four remaining key accused, one man received six months jail and another one year.

The offender who began sentencing on Wednesday was 28 to 30 years old at the time of his offences.

All of the children he abused belonged to other families at the community. He disciplined them in the midst of what Ross described as an “obsessive” campaign to remove an imagined evil — lust.

The adults mistakenly believed that most of the children in the community had sex with their parents and siblings. Zealous adults then conceived of punishments to save the children from sin, Ross said.

When the abuse came to light, one observer likened the community to a “cult.”

“The law must protect all children, whatever creed or whatever culture they are born into,” Ross said, adding that other Old Order Mennonites don’t sexually shame or physically discipline their children in such a way.

The community initially called the abuse “discipline.” Authorities said children were tortured into making false allegations that they’d engaged in sexual activity with their parents and siblings.

They were also “punished” for such things as “impure thoughts,” masturbation, failing to stand straight or eat fast enough, and for not “thinking right.”

The Crown says the offender who began sentencing on Wednesday obediently carried out the wishes of his father, who is accused of being the leader of a quest to cure the community of sexual impurity.

Specifically, the offender carried out punishment during “counselling” sessions in which children were interrogated until they falsely admitted to sexual acts and thoughts.

He took part in spanking and strapping sessions in which a boy, 11 to 12 years old, was struck 40 to 50 times. The boy estimates there were 30 to 40 such sessions in total, sometimes held three times per week, and his back was left blue and purple with bruises.

The offender once hit the boy with the handle of a hammer.

On another occasion, he lay on top of the boy with his full weight for half an hour. That left the boy unable to move his arm due to nerve damage in his neck, a condition that healed with physiotherapy.

In another case, the offender abused a 21-year-old man until he “admitted” to impure thoughts. The offender poked the victim with an iron poker on numerous occasions, and punched him and twisted his ears.

He also strapped a girl, 13 to 14 years old, several times, and kicked her numerous other times.

He subjected one boy, who was aged 13 to 14 when he was abused, to numerous strappings, and spanked another boy on 10 to 12 occasions when the child was five to eight years old.

The offender told court that he’d mistakenly acted in the belief the false allegations of sexual impropriety drawn from the children were true, and he apologized.

“Due to my conduct, the children’s trust and lives became shattered,” he said.

Justice Robert Cummings has reserved his decision and a date is yet to be set to deliver his decision.

Also on Wednesday, the offender’s father — accused of leading the “counselling” and punishment, and said to have introduced the use of the cattle prod on children — pleaded guilty to assaulting seven children and one young man.

He admitted to seven counts of assault with a weapon and one count of assault.

However, he pleaded not guilty to allegations that he sexually assaulted a community woman and sexually touched a 13- to 15-year-old girl.

Those charges have been set for trial in September, and the sentencing for the physical abuse will be held at the end of that trial.

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