EX-MLA SENTENCED TO 3 YEARS
Don MacIntyre pleads guilty to sexual interference involving a child; victim tells court, ‘I will carry this rage I have for him to my grave
Former MLA Don MacIntyre was sentenced to three years behind bars on Friday after he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference involving a child.
The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was 10 years old at the time of the offence and said outside court she will never forgive MacIntyre for destroying her childhood.
The former United Conservative Party MLA resigned his seat as legislative representative for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake in February 2018, around the time he was charged with sexual offences involving a girl under the age of 16.
MacIntyre was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference. On Friday, the 63-year-old pleaded guilty to sexual interference and the other charge was withdrawn.
The offences occurred five to 10 times in Sylvan Lake between 2010 and 2011 and involved inappropriate sexual touching, court heard.
Flanked by two family members, MacIntyre’s victim read a statement in court detailing the impact of the abuse.
What happened robbed her of her childhood, she told court, and led her to have suicidal thoughts. Later in life she began to wonder if she had imagined the whole thing and felt guilty.
It wasn’t until she was older that she learned the term “molest.” It was then she realized there was a word for what happened to her and she told her mother in 2015.
“I will carry this rage I have for him to my grave,” she told court.
Outside court, the woman who MacIntyre had abused as a child said justice had been served.
She spoke to a row of news cameras aimed at her feet and hands so she cannot be identified.
“I’m very happy. It’s been a very, very long time coming for me, I’ve been waiting almost half my life for today.”
She said she wanted to speak publicly because “he’s been so public for so long. I want what he did to me also to be public.
“He’s always been in a position of power. It felt so good to see that taken away from him.”
Asked if she had a message for people abused as children, she said “it does get better ... and seeing your abuser go to jail will make it feel even better.”
MacIntyre arrived at court with his wife around 9:20 a.m. Friday and did not respond to questions from Postmedia.
He was led into the enclosed prisoner’s box in courtroom 201 just after 10 a.m. He sat with his legs crossed, bobbing his foot. About 30 people including reporters sat in the gallery as the proceedings began.
Defence lawyer Ian McKay told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice D.A. Yungwirth that his client intended to enter a guilty plea on a single count of sexual interference.
MacIntyre then rose in the dock and entered his plea.
The court clerk read an agreed statement of facts describing the offences.
Crown prosecutor Julie Snowdon said two sealed victim impact statements had been prepared, which were unsealed and provided to the defence during a morning adjournment.
A sexual interference conviction carries a minimum sentence of one year in jail with a maximum of 14 years.
Yungwirth ultimately settled in the middle of the defence’s recommendations of two years and the Crown’s recommendation of three to 3½ years, sentencing MacIntyre to three years which he suggested be served at Bowden Institution, near his home.
An apology letter he wrote to the victim was neither aggravating nor mitigating, Snowdon said. While he did apologize for his actions, she said MacIntyre deflected it by suggesting it was part of “Satan’s plan.”
McKay painted a picture of a deeply religious man who has owned his actions and lost everything during a “dark period” in his life, when he was suffering from chronic depression and anxiety.
He said the media coverage of the case has been “immense” given his role as an MLA.
“This is a man that in so many ways has been punished already and will continue to be punished until his last breath.”
Ultimately, the justice rejected the defence’s argument that MacIntyre was already punished in the community, saying MacIntyre chose to seek public office after the offences had been committed.
He said by pleading guilty, MacIntyre saved the court time and saved witnesses the “agony of testifying.” He has shown “immense remorse” since the victim came forward in 2015.
MacIntyre’s third wife, who attended court with him, was one of the few people in MacIntyre’s life who stood by him.
MacIntyre apologized to his victim and his family in a brief statement from the prisoner’s box.
The former MLA was a first-term legislature member elected for the Wildrose party in 2015. The Wildrose merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the United Conservative Party in 2017.
In May, MacIntyre waived his right to an inquiry, which is used to determine if there is enough evidence for a case to go to trial.
UCP Leader Jason Kenney said the party first learned of the charges on Feb. 2, 2018, when MacIntyre informed party house leader Jason Nixon that he was resigning his seat in the wake of charges laid against him the previous day.
MacIntyre also told Nixon the charges were covered by a courtordered publication ban that prevented the party from disclosing or discussing the charges.
That publication ban was lifted Feb. 9.