Dad receives jail sentence for sexual abuse of girl

A Niagara man convicted of incest, who claimed his teenaged daughter would “nag” him for sexual interaction, has been sentenced to six years behind bars.

“The defendant is entirely to blame for the events leading up to these charges,” Judge Joseph De Filippis said Monday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines. “None of this is the victim’s fault. Whatever, she may have said or done, she was a 12-year-old child and the defendant, her father, had a duty to care for her. He failed to perform this basic parental role.”

Court heard the 45-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to charges of incest and sexual interference, sexually abused his biological daughter over the course of two or three years, beginning when she was 12 years old. He cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victim.

The defendant said the events began because he saw his daughter walking naked in the home and his “urges took over.” He said she allowed him to touch her breasts in exchange for money, and that sexual intercourse occurred after he and his daughter had consumed alcohol and he became aroused because “she was being erotic.”

In a letter of apology submitted to the judge, the defendant accepted full responsibility for his actions and said he deeply regrets the harm he caused to his daughter and family.

Court heard the offender has undergone counselling since his arrest which focused on his “cognitive distortions” in minimizing the harm he caused including blaming the victim and thinking that touching a child sexually can be a way to show love and affection.

Clinical tests place the defendant at a low risk of re-offending.