Court upholds conviction for abusive stepdad

Alberta’s top court has upheld the conviction of a Cochrane man for sexually abusing his stepdaughters.

In a unanimous ruling released Friday, a three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel denied Allan Dean Griffith’s bid for a new trial.

The appeal judges said Court of Queen’s Bench Justice John McCarthy made no errors in assessing the credibility of the witnesses in finding Griffith guilty.

Griffith was convicted in March 2017 of sexually assaulting stepdaughters Taylor and Kylie French between 2001 and 2006.

He was sentenced to nine years. Normally such cases involve a publication ban on the identities of the complainants, especially minors, but the victims asked that it be lifted in this case, so the offender could be identified.

At a sentencing hearing in May 2017, when Crown prosecutor Ron Simenik sought a 10- to 12-year sentence, Griffith remained defiant. “Sir, I’m addressing this court as an innocent man who has been convicted of crimes I did not and would not commit,” Griffith said to the judge. “Only when these lies have been exposed will justice be served,” said Griffith.

At that hearing, Lisa Fox, mother of the victims, read out a gutwrenching impact statement. “The crimes infiltrated by Allan Dean Griffith have devastated our family,” Fox said. She said Griffith could have mitigated the suffering he caused “if he had just owned up to his crimes years ago.”