Judge mulls fate of man who had sex with girl, 12

Judge reserves decision in sentencing of Penticton man who said he thought he was ‘hooking up’ with 16-year-old

APenticton man in his early 20s who pleaded guilty to sexual interference of a person under the age of 16 will have to wait a while longer to learn his fate.

The judge in the two-day sentencing hearing said Friday she needs time to render her decision.

Court heard that Cole Wyatt Borba was 21 when he drove a 12-year-old girl to a deserted area on Carmi Road in Penticton and engaged in sexual contact.

The pair met through a mutual friend, who was 16, in August 2016 at a meet-up at Columbia Elementary School.

Borba, Crown counsel Ann Lerchs said, had heard before that initial meet-up through their mutual friend that the 12year-old was interested in “hooking up” with him.

Lerchs told the court Borba took the opportunity to observe the youngster when they met, but didn’t speak much at all.

“Were you interested in hooking up with her?” Lerchs asked during his testimony.

“Yeah, she was a pretty girl,” Borba replied.

One month later, the girl contacted Borba through the social media platform Snapchat, court heard, and he asked her early in the conversation if she would want to “hook up” with him.

“This is with a girl that he’s had possibly one, two, three or four words with,” argued Lerchs. “Not much more than one brief encounter.”

Borba told the court he believed she was the same age as their mutual friend, whom he knew to be 16. He confirmed this by seeing the friend’s birthdate on Facebook.

Lerchs continued by telling the court Borba picked the girl and her friend up from the movie theatre in Penticton and drove them to a nearby liquor store. They waited in the vehicle while he purchased alcohol for them, and he then dropped them off in the downtown area.

Later that evening, he picked the pair up from Boston Pizza and drove them to Columbia Elementary School.

In their testimony, the friend described the silence in the vehicle as “awkward,” similar to watching her parents fight in the car and the silence that follows.

“Mr. Borba described it as quiet, but not awkward,” said Lerchs. “The entire time spent together in the vehicle was maybe 15 or 20 minutes, with little to no conversation. There was time for conversation, but there wasn’t any.”

The friend left the vehicle, but the 12year-old girl agreed to leave with Borba. He drove them to a deserted area along Carmi Road, kissed her, put her hand on his penis and then had her perform oral sex on him until she said she was too uncomfortable to continue.

The defence argued the girl was the first to introduce the subject of sexual contact, adding Borba shouldn’t have been so trusting of the mutual friend.

Lerchs argued the defence’s claim that Borba’s polite and considerate manner while taking steps to make the girl less uncomfortable was irrelevant.

“(This girl) was 12 years old. She was simply too young to consent,” she said. “When talking about (the age gap between) a 12year-old and a 21-year-old, that’s almost her lifespan.”

Inconsistencies in testimonies included the defence’s claim that the girl had mentioned her quality of driving to Borba. While she testified she did not remember saying anything of the like, Borba said he couldn’t recall the exact words said by her.

A date for the judge’s decision has not been set.