Sentence at ‘extreme low end’ for abuse of children

A man has been sentenced to just shy of a year in jail after he abused his former partner’s children over the span of a year in a southwest Manitoba First Nation community.

“You did terrible damage to these kids,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in Brandon provincial court on Friday.

The 27-year-old man previously pleaded guilty to two counts each of assault, assault with a weapon, counselling the commission of an offence and administering a noxious substance.

A publication ban protecting the identities of the four child victims prevents the Sun from naming the offender.

The Crown and defence jointly recommended a sentence of 340 days in jail, followed by one year of supervised probation.

Crown attorney Melania Cannon said the recommended sentence is at the “extreme low end of what would be appropriate,” but took into consideration the man’s guilty pleas.

“The mitigating effect of the guilty pleas in this case cannot be overstated,” Cannon said. “The children’s versions of events … were contradictory in terms of what (the accused) did, who he did it to and when it was done,” Cannon said.

The Crown had “serious concerns” regarding the ability for two of the victims to testify if the matter went to trial.

Cannon outlined the facts of the offences, which took place from March 7, 2023, to March 7, 2024.

At the time of the offences, the man was in a relationship with the mother of the four victims, who were ages three, nine, 11 and 12.

Cannon said the man struck the 11-year-old boy in the head with a metal object. The victim couldn’t remember what the object was. In a separate incident, he put the boy in a chokehold, she said.

On various occasions, the man got the 11-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister to physically fight each other, Cannon said. He also gave them cannabis and alcohol, court heard.

“Based on what the children said was that it was taking … a single ‘hoot’ from a joint and having a few sips of beer,” the Crown said.

Cannon said it appeared the accused made the two siblings fight each other and gave them intoxicating substances “for his own amusement or entertainment.”

The man also pushed a screwdriver into the three-year-old girl’s arm after she didn’t stop crying when he told her to, Cannon said.

Additionally, he kicked the nine-year-old girl in the back of the leg, and she felt that it left a bruise, Cannon said.

“The assaults on the children appear to be malicious or random for the most part, rather than a misguided attempt at discipline.”

Cannon said the man has been diagnosed with a cognitive impairment with suspected fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

The man expressed remorse and said he regretted “every second of everything he did to the children” and wished that he could go back and change it, Cannon said.

However, he couldn’t answer the question of how his actions could affect the children’s lives other than the fact that they could have an effect on them, she said.

This reflected his cognitive deficit in terms of having “weak abstract verbal thinking skills” when being asked to speculate or imagine what someone else is thinking or experiencing, Cannon said.

The Crown said during his time in custody, the man has engaged in many programs.

Defence lawyer Myles Davis said the man’s mental deficits and compromised decision-making skills, along with substance abuse that was ongoing at the time of the offences, directly related to his offending behaviour.

He said the man also experienced “negative circumstances” while living with his father during his childhood.

Davis described the Crown’s case as “quite weak” and echoed the Crown’s comments that the man’s guilty pleas are especially mitigating.

“Should (he) have chosen to proceed to trial on these matters, not only would the court have to have child witnesses testifying and having to go through the rigour of cross-examination, but the court would also have the potential that … these offences would not have resulted in convictions,” he said.

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said although she thought the total sentence was “very low,” it accomplished getting several offences on the man’s criminal record, which appropriately covered the “gamut of the offending behaviour” that was alleged.

The offender had the equivalent of 257 days of time in custody to his credit, leaving him with 83 days going forward.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com