Sex offence results in jail term of 14 months

Kelowna resident pleaded guilty to interfering with girl, 8

AKelowna resident who pleaded guilty to sexually interfering with an eightyear-old girl has been sentenced to 14 months in jail.

Jeremy Melvin Carlson was charged with sexual assault and sexual interference of a person under the age of 16.

He pleaded guilty to the sexual interference charge in November 2017.

Sexual interference is defined in the Criminal Code of Canada as when a person, for a sexual purpose, touches, indirectly or directly, with a part of the body or with an object, any part of the body of a person under the age of 16 years. The offences occurred in 2016. At the sentencing hearing in May 2018, the victim’s mother read a victim impact statement aloud in court, expressing the distress this has caused her daughter and their family.

Later that day, defence counsel Jacqueline Halliburn informed the court she was making an application for Judge Monica McParland to recuse herself from the case for shedding a tear during the victim impact statement.

In August, McParland refused to do so, saying “human compassion” does not amount to judicial bias.

The next month, Halliburn said Carlson intended to apply to withdraw the guilty plea on the basis of new information disclosed by the Crown from the victim’s family regarding Carlson’s role as a person in a position of trust.

This was despite the fact Crown prosecutor Angela Ross had said she was no longer proceeding with her application to call the new evidence.

The withdrawal application was to be on the basis that Carlson was not fully informed when he entered his guilty plea, said Halliburn.

In November, Carlson decided not to continue with the bid to withdraw the guilty plea.

No reasons were given at the time.

The case returned to court last week, when McParland delivered her decision on sentencing.

The Crown had argued for a sentence between 15 and 20 months in jail, followed by two years’ probation, while the defence sought a 90day intermittent jail sentence to be served on weekends, followed by three years’ probation.

McParland sentenced Carlson to 14 months in jail, followed by two years’ probation.

Carlson, who now identifies as a woman and goes by the name Rhiley Melvin Carlson, will be on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.