Man sentenced to four years for sexual interference

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A man who had sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl when he was 20 was sentenced to just over four years in jail in Brandon provincial court on Tuesday.

The man, who the Sun cannot name due to a publication ban on any information that could identify the victim, previously pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual interference.

“The court instructs me to emphasize that this behaviour has to be denounced in strong terms, and there has to be a message to you and others that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable,” Judge John Combs said.

The Crown and defence lawyers jointly recommended a sentence of just under 24 months going forward. The man has already spent the equivalent of about 25 months in jail, making his total sentence about 49 months.

Following the sentence, the lawyers recommended a three-year period of probation, with the first year being supervised.

Crown attorney Caroline Lacey read the agreed statement of facts.

The man and the victim had met through a mutual friend and hung out several times. Both the man and the mutual friend thought the victim was around 18 years old, but the man never asked her age.

On July 20, 2022, the victim was at the man’s house where they were drinking and smoking marijuana together. The two started off kissing and eventually had sexual intercourse.

“There were marks that were visible on (the victim’s) body when the matter was reported, including a hickey,” Lacey said. “At no point was consent asked for.”

At some point during their time together, the man threw the victim’s phone and broke it.

Lacey said there are several aggravating factors, including that the victim was under 18, that she had consumed intoxicating substances, increasing her vulnerability, and that the man left marks on her body and didn’t use a condom, heightening the degree of physical interference.

She said his guilty plea, which came on the day of his preliminary hearing in April, spared the victim from needing to testify a second time, making it a mitigating factor. She said he also showed remorse in the pre-sentence report.

“We see quotes such as, ‘If I could change what I did, I would,’ ‘I did what I did, and I’m doing time,’ and then, ‘I feel sorry I caused harm to someone,’” Lacey said. “Remorse should be considered here.”

While the victim did not write a formal victim impact statement, Lacey said in conversations with her, it was evident she had been deeply impacted.

“The court can assume that a certain amount of emotional and psychological harm to the complainant results from any sexual assault,” she said.

Defence lawyer Hayley Allardyce said the man has prominent Gladue factors and had a difficult upbringing.

She said he grew up with his father and grandparents, who all struggled with alcohol use. He never had any connection with his biological mother. At 18 years old he was asked to leave the home.

Allardyce said the man has treaty status through Oxford House but is disconnected from his culture. She said he was introduced to traditional practices for the first time while being in custody.

“It’s a really unfortunate thing, and I’ve seen it so many times where the first time that so many young Indigenous people are able to … learn about their culture is when, unfortunately, they’re incarcerated,” she said.

Allardyce said the man is quiet and doesn’t talk much, but she felt that despite this, he expressed genuine remorse.

“When I told him how old the victim was, I saw his heart drop. I saw the surprise on his face. Of course, there’s no excuse for what happened. He should have asked, he should have taken those reasonable steps, but it does speak to the remorse he feels,” she said.

She said he was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the incident, and the details were blurry, but he accepted responsibility nonetheless.

During his time in custody, Allardyce said, the man has completed multiple workbooks and expressed a desire to make positive changes in his life.

Combs said he was satisfied with the joint recommendation but thought one year of supervised probation wasn’t long enough since one of the things the man needed most was support in the community.

After some back and forth, the judge and lawyers agreed that 18 months of supervised probation and 18 months of unsupervised probation would be appropriate.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com