Court hears woman’s account of trauma from sexual abuse

A Brandon court heard Tuesday that a woman says she often has flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks about the sexual abuse an offender put her through when she was a young child more than two decades ago.

The 61-year-old man previously pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual interference.

Both the Crown and defence agreed on a sentence of two years less a day, but the Crown did not support the defence lawyer’s recommendation that the man serve it as a conditional sentence — house arrest.

A publication ban on any information that could identify the victim prevents the Sun from naming the accused.

During Tuesday’s sentencing hearing in Court of King’s Bench, Crown attorney Ron Toews read out the victim’s impact statement on the woman’s behalf.

For years, the woman said she lived in fear, confusion and isolation, and that the abuse impacted every aspect of her life. She said the man’s actions have affected her ability to trust others, especially men.

“The abuse was not a single mistake or a moment of weakness. It was a deliberate, prolonged pattern of cruelty and control,” she said. “I never knew a life where I wasn’t being abused at the hands of this individual.”

According to court documents, the man was in a relationship with the victim’s maternal grandmother when the offending took place between May 2001 and May 2003. The victim was between five and seven years old.

The victim, her mother, her mother’s husband, her grandmother and the offender lived together in a small community south of Brandon, and on several occasions, he entered the girl’s bedroom, tried to kiss her and licked her chest and nipples.

The victim made partial disclosure of the assaults in 2008, but there was no formal prosecution.

In her victim impact statement, the woman recalled being suicidal at a young age and said she started self-harming when she was 10 years old.

“Growing up, every day I woke up scared to face (him) and ashamed to tell my mother and family what he was doing to me … It was a huge burden on my soul.”

She said the court process was “extremely stressful and retraumatizing,” as she had to tell her story to many people and felt like she was the one on trial.

“I never felt like he took real accountability. Instead, he chose to drag me through the court process for over five long years,” she said, adding that she had to use vacation time to attend court meetings and hearings.

“I’ve had to fight for the last five to six years to get the courts to hear my cries and to listen to my story.”

Toews said he struggled to come to his sentence recommendation of two years less a day, but it was informed by the fact that the offender pleaded guilty, despite it being one week from his trial, and the uncertainty of a conviction.

He said abusers in these situations are thieves, and the victim lost her childhood due to the abuse she suffered.

“She talks about how she’s still coping … It’s an ongoing theft, and the trauma she experienced is ongoing.”

The Crown said sentencing the offender to house arrest wouldn’t meet the sentencing objectives of deterrence and denunciation.

He asked that the sentence be followed by three years of probation.

Defence lawyer Myles Davis said if the offender took the matter to trial, there would have been difficulty with the victim’s testimony, since the initial disclosure of the offence was almost 20 years ago.

Davis said his client’s guilty plea is mitigating and “saved (the victim) from having to testify and go through rigorous cross-examination at trial.”

He said the offender had a difficult upbringing.

The offender went to several foster homes before he was adopted at eight years old, court heard. Both of his adoptive parents physically, sexually and mentally abused him, Davis said.

“I think that his personal childhood circumstances definitely impacted him and potentially resulted in this offending,” Davis said. He added that his client has been seeing a general counsellor every month.

Davis said the man was assessed as a low risk to reoffend, and there haven’t been any allegations of him breaching his bail conditions since he was arrested more than four years ago, showing that he can be a law-abiding citizen.

The offender has health issues and anticipates needing major heart surgery in the next year or two, court heard. Davis said he needed to access supports in the community that would be available to him while serving a conditional sentence.

He said a conditional sentence would not only address the objectives of deterrence and denunciation, but also rehabilitation.

Justice Scott Abel is expected to deliver his sentencing decision in May.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com