Second sex assault conviction adds one year to prison time

A 26-year-old man will serve one extra year in prison for sexually assaulting his 14-year-old foster sister.

He is already serving a four-year sentence for sexually assaulting another girl when she was 13 and 14 years old, which makes his total sentence on the two cases five years in prison.

The man cannot be identified due to a publication ban on the identity of the victim.

The man was convicted following a trial in October in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench, with sentencing reserved until Thursday.

“I find some form of consecutive sentence is appropriate in this case,” Justice Allisen Rothery said. The assaults “greatly af- fected” the victim, Rothery said.

The man was found guilty of raping his foster sister in the basement of the house where they lived on a Saskatoon-area acreage and in a trailer on the property.

After reporting the assaults, the girl was removed from the home and family with whom she had lived since a toddler. She went into a downward spiral that included running away and starting to use drugs and alcohol to cope with the pain.

“The worst thing happened to her that could happen to a victim of sexual abuse,” Crown prosecutor Buffy Rodgers said. Her relationship with her adoptive parents and siblings is “irreparably damaged.”

“She testified he has ruined her life,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers argued for a five-year sentence on the sexual assault of the foster sister, with three years to be served consecutive to the man’s previous sentence, making for a total sentence of seven years.

Defence lawyer Kevin Lieslar argued for a sentence of four years to be served concurrently, noting the accused was originally charged on one indictment and they were all similar offences that occurred in the same time period.

“We ask the court to consider, if (the accused) had been convicted of the counts against both these young ladies … and sentenced together, we would suggest he would not have received a sevenyear sentence,” Lieslar said.

Rothery said she found a sentence of one additional year meets the goals of deterrence and denunciation while not being unduly long or harsh.