Cape Breton man to enter pleas on sex offences
A Cape Breton man with sex offence convictions from Newfoundland-Labrador will be back in a Sydney provincial court Aug. 20 to enter pleas on offences including sexual assault.
Brian Morris Benoit, 45, of Mira Bay Drive is charged with sexual assault and unlawful entry in connection with a March 29 incident in Sydney. He is also charged with breaching a court order and with failing to register as a sex of- fender. Those offences allegedly occurred between May and July 2014.
During a brief provincial court appearance Thursday in Sydney, Benoit consented to a further remand to the Cape Breton Correctional Centre.
In 2011, Benoit, then a resident of Piccadilly, NL., pleaded guilty to two counts of providing liquor to a minor and with breaching a court order by being in the company of children under the age of 16.
According to media reports of the court hearing, Benoit pleaded guilty to providing liquor to two girls, age 12 and 13, and then hiding them in a crawl space beneath his home when police arrived at the door.
He was sentenced to a provincial jail term of 10 months and ordered to complete a three-year probation period during which the court ordered he was not to have any kind of communication with children under the age of 16.
During the sentencing hearing, the Crown reported there was evidence from Benoit’s cellphone that he had in- vited the young girls to his home.
Later in 2011, Benoit was sentenced again on a charge of sexual assault after admitting to having sex with a girl, on several occasions, in 2010 when she under the age of 16.
He was ordered to complete an eight-month sentence along with registering as a sex offender with the national registry.