‘No means no’

Donald Christopher Higgins sentenced to six months in jail for criminal harassment

A P.E.I. man who used an innocent teen to deliver a birthday balloon to someone he wasn’t supposed to have contact with was sentenced Friday to six months in jail.

Donald Christopher Higgins, 52, appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to criminal harassment and breaching his probation.

It was Higgins’s third conviction this year for harassment involving the same victim.

Orr said the victim has been direct and consistent that she doesn’t want any contact with Higgins.

“She wants nothing whatsoever to do with him,” Orr said.

During a previous appearance, the court heard Higgins was on probation from a previous conviction for harassment, which including a condition he stay away from the woman he was harassing.

Higgins picked up a friend’s teenage son and offered to go for a drive so the teen could get some experience behind the wheel.

He directed the teen where to go and gave him a happy birthday balloon, asking him to tie it to the front step of the victim’s house.

A surveillance camera caught the incident on video.

The court heard the teen didn’t realize why Higgins asked him to deliver the balloon or whose house it was.

Higgins was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time and was not allowed near the house.

On Friday, Orr said it was hard to understand how Higgins couldn’t understand the wording of the no-contact condition.

“It means no contact in any way,” she said.

Orr questioned what it will take for Higgins to understand that “no means no.”

Before hearing his sentence, Higgins rose to address the court.

“I’d like to apologize for my actions,” he said.

Orr gave Higgins credit of 78 days for time spent in custody since his arrest in August.

Higgins will be on probation for three years after his release from jail, which includes a condition he have no contact with the victim.

Orr also imposed further conditions that banned Higgins from six locations.

Higgins will have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet if his probation officer orders it and he must report any relationships with females.

He will also be under a weapons prohibition for life.