Jail term sought for man who sexually assaulted girl

The Crown is seeking a two-year jail term for a Vancouver man who was convicted of committing sex offences against an eightyear-old girl at a beach at the University Endowment Lands on Canada Day 2014.

In August 2016, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper found David Alan Lessor guilty of one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference of the girl, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban.

Lessor fired his lawyer after the conviction, and the sentencing has been delayed a number of times. In March the judge gave him a deadline to get a lawyer by June 22 or she would proceed with the sentencing regardless.

Lessor showed up without a lawyer Thursday, saying he’d been denied legal aid, and requested yet another adjournment but the judge rejected his application.

In her submissions, Crown counsel Kristin Bryson told the judge that the most important principles on sentencing were denunciation and deterrence. She noted the fact that Parliament in recent years had passed laws calling for tougher sentences for people who sexually abuse children.

Bryson said that Lessor had a prior conviction for sexual interference of underage girls and referred to a pre-sentence report in which Lessor declined to discuss the current offence.

A psychologist’s report on Lessor that was cited by Bryson had the accused being assessed as a moderate to high risk to reoffend. Two victim impact statements — from the victim’s mother, who also cannot be identified due to the ban, and the victim herself — were filed in court.

The mom said in her statement that reporting the crime could easily have cost her her daughter, who she had “fought tooth and nail for,” but that it had to be done.

“I didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to do it. It was drawn out, humiliating, inconvenient and extremely stressful for both of us.”

The victim said in her statement that she was “OK” but that she was glad that it was over. “I feel like I’m going to cry when I talk about it. I think he knew what he was doing.”

Lessor, who has told the judge he wants to pursue an application seeking a stay of the charges on the grounds of trial delay, said he would give his sentencing submissions Friday.

Court heard that Lessor approached the victim shortly after she and her mom arrived at Acadia Beach, west of Spanish Banks.

Lessor, who did not know the girl or her mother, began a conversation about their dog, a boxer, and sat down to talk with them.

In her testimony, the girl said that after her mom had gone to her vehicle to pick up some items, Lessor lifted her dress a number of times. The girl, who was wearing a bathing suit under the dress, said Lessor touched her on the part of the suit that was covering her vagina and her posterior. kfraser@postmedia.com twitter.com/keithrfraser