Man jailed for sexual assault on 95-year-old
Dementia patient’s son saw incidents on camera involving personal support worker
A personal support worker who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 95-year-old man in his care was sentenced to 23 months in custody Wednesday morning.
Danilo Alcala, 62, admitted to committing the offences three out of the six times the man was in his care last July.
They included three counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual exploitation of a person with a disability.
The victim has dementia and needed help getting dressed and bathing. His identity is protected by a publication ban.
The evidence was substantiated by video cameras the victim’s son installed in the east-end Toronto home.
“The son had the unsettling experience of watching,” the acts perpetuated on his father live, Justice Rebecca Shamai said in the Old City Hall courtroom.
He had just installed the Internet camera in his home as he and his wife had recently returned to work from their leaves following their child’s birth, said Roger Caracciolo, the lead detective on the case, afterwards.
The man had been “fiddling” with the software on his phone when he saw Alcala masturbating in front of his father and immediately called police.
Alcala also forced the man to perform oral sex on him, the court heard. Alcala has been in custody for 12 months, since he was first arrested and has spent most of those on lockdown and segregated for protection at the Toronto South Detention Centre. That time and the “harsh conditions” of his detainment were taken into account in the sentencing, Shamai said.
He is to be released in five months as he was credited 18 months for the time he spent in jail and will be on probation for two years after that.
The judge called the acts opportunistic and found parallels between this case and child abuse because of the man’s vulnerability.
“(Alcala) casually took advantage . . . almost from the first time he entered the household,” she said.
Alcala worked as a personal care worker with Spectrum Health Care for at least 10 years.
The organization is conducting its own investigation. Complaints of similar behaviour from other clients were reported to police but did not result in charges.
At the end of the sentencing, Alcala, clad in a khaki green linen jacket and bright blue shirt, leaned on the railing and bowed his head.
His lawyer, Scott Bergman, said he believed the short sentence was justified.
“It’s safe to assume there’s a lot of shame and there’s a lot of remorse associated with what’s happened,” he said.