Daughters confront father in Evansburg sex abuse case

Family stands arm-in-arm before judge as victim impact statements are read

Warning: this story contains disturbing details.

The young woman stood at a podium at the front of the courtroom, facing the judge.

The room fell silent for a long moment. At first, it seemed like she might not be able to speak. The judge offered her the opportunity to sit down if she preferred.

But she stayed standing, and began to address her father — her abuser — seated in the prisoner box in leg shackles.

“To the person who was once my father,” she began. “I don’t hate you, I hate what you did. I hate that you were selfish. I hate that you put your own needs first.”

She paused, telling the man to look at her.

“As a child I looked up to you, I thought that this would be the type of man that I would want to have as my spouse,” she said. “That is, until your true self popped out.”

The young woman was one of nearly a dozen people to confront the man in court Friday, detailing the impact of years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse he inflicted on them at the family’s compound west of Edmonton.

Neither they nor the man can be identified under a court ordered publication ban to protect the victims’ identities.

The man sat impassively in the prisoner’s box, cocking his head at times while listening to the statements.

The man pleaded guilty to 10 charges in February including sexual assault, incest, child exploitation and making child pornography.

In late 2016, another family member called RCMP about possible sexual abuse taking place on the family’s acreage near Evansburg, according to an agreed statement of facts.

The children were taken out of school by their father years prior and home-schooled — an education that included regular drills with the more than two dozen firearms later found on the property.

Court heard the accused took an interest in firearms after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and underwent training that included instruction in guerrilla warfare.

A few weeks after receiving the tip, RCMP learned the accused posted child pornography of his daughter on the internet. They arrested him during a traffic stop in November 2016, raided the family home and seized the accused’s electronic devices, which also contained multiple pornographic images of his daughters.

Police also found 20 to 30 firearms littered throughout the house, including rifles, machine guns, shotguns, handguns and what appeared to be grenades.

After interviewing family members, police learned the three daughters had been subjected to horrifying sexual abuse at the hands of their father.

The man began by grooming them when they were adolescents, telling them “they needed to learn about sex to please their future husbands ... so he was going to teach them,” the agreed facts state.

Court heard the accused sexually assaulted all three daughters.

One of them was offered up to two unknown men on the internet, who raped her while her father watched and participated.

Police found video of one of the sexual assaults on one of the girls on the man’s laptop.

All three described having to do sexual favours for their father in exchange for treats and junk food.

They were told to keep the abuse secret.

All three daughters, now young adults, described nightmares, trauma and the normal lives they were deprived of as a result of the abuse. The family stood at the front of the courtroom with their arms around each other as some of the victim impact statements were read out.

One daughter said she struggles to go outside or relate to other people, and can barely write because of lack of schooling.

“I’m not normal. I feel like I’ll never be normal,” she said in a victim impact statement. “He has wrecked me in so many ways. He has destroyed so much of me.”

Another daughter has since graduated college and learned to drive — an activity her father prohibited. She said her father used the Bible to justify his behaviour but said she now understands it was a lie.

The man’s ex-wife, who was kept in the dark about the abuse, also provided a victim impact statement. She said she was forced to work as the family breadwinner and give all her earnings to her husband. She was often out of the house on night and weekend shifts.

“I feel so ashamed that I didn’t know what was happening so I couldn’t help my children,” she said in her statement.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place in September.

I’m not normal. I feel like I’ll never be normal. He has wrecked me in so many ways. He has destroyed so much of me.