6-month term for sex crimes overturned

Appeal Court hands Vernon man 1-year conditional sentence for sexually interfering with children

A Vernon man who avoided the mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail for sex crimes committed against two children has been handed a harsher sentence by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

Dylan William Scofield pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference with children under the ages of 16.

In a decision last year, Justice Gary Weatherill determined the mandatory minimum one-year jail sentence sought by the Crown to be unconstitutional.

Instead, Weatherill granted Scofield a six-month conditional sentence. A conditional sentence is a sentence served in the community instead of in prison.

Weatherill cited “exceptional circumstances” as the reason for his decision, including that Scofield was a first-time offender who suffers from “significant cognitive deficits.”

“This sentence may not satisfy everyone, but . . . the law requires my sentence to balance many factors, not just satisfy one particular interest,” he wrote. “I am not persuaded that the Crown has established that Mr. Scofield remains a danger to children.”

The offences occurred between June and October 2013.

The Crown appealed the decision, arguing the judge erred in declaring the mandatory minimum sentence unconstitutional.

The Crown said a jail sentence in the range of 24 to 36 months would have been appropriate in this case, but it sought the one-year mandatory minimum as part of a plea deal with the defence.

B.C. Court of Appeal Justice David Harris allowed the appeal, but he chose to impose a one-year conditional sentence as opposed to jail time.

Harris said if it were not for exceptional circumstances the sentencing judge relied on, he would have imposed a 15-month jail sentence in this case.

However, he concluded Weatherill was not wrong to conclude a conditional sentence would be fit.

“Although his offences were extremely serious and normally attract a term of imprisonment in excess of the one-year mandatory minimum, sending Mr. Scofield to prison for one year, given his significant cognitive deficits, would outrage the standards of most informed Canadians,” Harris wrote in his recent decision. “I would declare that the mandatory minimum sentence . . . is unconstitutional and of no force or effect.”

Justice John Savage agreed with Harris’s decision, while Justice Barbara Fisher took a different view.

She agreed the mandatory minimum sentence was unconstitutional, but said she would have imposed a 16-month conditional sentence given the seriousness of the offences.