Uncle guilty of sexually assaulting nephew

A young boy wasn’t sure how many times his uncle abused him over the course of 16 months but told court the man’s condom collection went from 80-plus to 30.

The boy’s 22-year-old uncle on Friday was found guilty of several sexrelated offences said to have occurred between February 2014 and August 2015, including sexual assault and sexual interference. He will return to court in October for sentencing.

The man’s name cannot be made public due to a publication ban to protect the identity of the victim.

The victim, now nine, testified in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines he was seven years old when his uncle began sodomizing him. While the boy’s mother had separated from his father, court was told, she wanted her son to have a relationship with his paternal grandparents and the boy was a regular visitor to the St. Catharines home the grandparents shared with the defendant.

When the boy and his mother moved to Niagara Falls, the youngster told his mother he no longer wanted to visit his grandparents. He subsequently disclosed to his mother what had happened.

The victim told police his uncle “did the same thing to him as people did to get kids made.”

Assistant Crown attorney Holly Nickel said the boy was repeatedly sodomized. When the boy would scream out in pain, his uncle warned him to keep quiet and made him scream into a pillow.

The defendant denied the accusations, saying he was never left alone with the boy.

Defence lawyer Patrick Little argued there was no medical or physical evidence that corroborated the boy’s claims.

In his judgment, Judge Joseph Nadel rejected the defendant’s evidence.

He said the complainant, on the other hand, answered questions in a “direct, concrete and guileless fashion and that his evidence was unsophisticated, unexaggerated and ungilded.”

“What he said rang true to me,” the judge said, adding the boy had no motive to create false allegations against his uncle.