Decision next month on sex assault conviction

A 50-year-old Raymond man charged with decades-old sex offences against underage girls should learn next month on which charges he will be convicted, and whether he will be sentenced under current legislation or legislation that existed in the 1980s.

The accused, who can’t be named to protect the identity of the complainants and because he was also a youth at the time of the alleged offences, is charged with four counts of sexual assault and two counts of indecent assault.

Following a trial last month, Lethbridge lawyer Bob Bissett invited the judge to convict his client on four of the charges — one count of indecent assault and three counts of sexual assault — but he believes the remaining two charges should be withdrawn. Bissett also believes his client should be sentenced under old legislation, not the legislation that exists now.

Bissett pointed out that even though his client was appropriately charged last year under the existing Youth Criminal Justice Act, his sentence must be based on what was available under the Juvenile Delinquents Act and the Young Offenders Act, which were in effect at the time of the offences in the 1980s, and offered less strict punishment.

“The Charter (of Rights and Freedoms) says my client is entitled to the lesser sentence,” Bissett told Judge Timothy Hironaka.

The man is accused of sexually touching four underage girls in the early 1980s when he was a youth. He admitted during his trial that he sexually touched two of the girls on multiple occasions, but he only tried once to touch a third girl on her buttocks — she punched him afterward — and he never touched a fourth, at all, despite their evidence to the contrary during the trial.

Under the JDA, a youth offender would have been sent to a reform school, which no longer exists. Under the YOA, a youthful offender could only be sent to jail for the protection of the public, not as a punishment.

Crown Prosecutor Dawn Janecke is seeking a sentence under the existing YCJA, which could still result in the least punitive sentence because under that Act jail is a sentence of last resort.

The matter returns to court March 4 when Hironaka is expected to decide on which charges to convict the accused and under which act. Sentencing may be adjourned to another date.