Four-year sentence for molesting young girls

Man in his 40s, who cannot be named to protect victims’ identities, admitted to molesting 2 of his former common-law wife’s daughters in their own beds

Editors note: This story contains graphic sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

A44-year-old Penticton man who admitted to molesting two of his former common-law wife’s daughters in their own beds was sentenced Monday to four years in prison. The man, who cannot be named due to a courtimposed publication ban meant to protect the victims’ identities, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault in 2016.

Court heard that during that summer, the man began to assault the 12-year-old girl, beginning with rubbing her thigh and fondling her vaginal area, and later having her masturbate him and perform fellatio. The incidents occurred in her own bed, as well as the bed the man shared with her mother.

Roughly around the same time, the man would climb into the bed of the girl’s nine-year-old sister and fondle her vaginal area, later pulling his penis out of his underwear and performing simulated sex. The nine-year-old said in a police statement she ended up “booby trapping” her room so she would be alerted to the man’s presence.

At the time of the offences, the man and the victims’ mother had been living together for five years.

The older sister reported the assaults to a school counsellor following a night of abuse in November 2016. The girls’ mother called RCMP when the events came to light, fearing the man would commit suicide. The man was arrested on his way to the RCMP detachment to turn himself in. The man provided a full confession to police after his arrest.

According to psychological and pre-sentence reports, the man has struggled with suicidal thoughts, and “he appeared to be resigned to a fate that held no future. (The man) maintained he would not commit suicide before sentencing so that the victims would receive the justice they deserve,” explained the probation officer who authored one of the reports.

The reports also said the man was quite remorseful, referring to himself as a “monster.”

Provincial court Judge Michelle Daneliuk, who handed down the sentence, said the man’s extended family has cut him off, while he stepped down from what he called his dream job and has more or less been living a “transient and indigent” lifestyle since the offences came to light.

Daneliuk cited as aggravating factors the escalation in behavior, the multiple victims and the offences taking place in the girls’ own beds.

The man is now a registered sex offender for life, and was ordered to have no contact with the victims or their mother.

Upon his release, he is not to attend a public park, swimming area, daycare, school or any place it would be reasonable to find persons under the age of 16.