4 years for sexual abuse of children
Photo: Contributed
A Summerland man has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting his young stepson for several years.
The name of the 57-year-old man could not be published to protect the identity of his victim.
He appeared in Penticton Supreme Court on Tuesday to learn his sentence. He had previously been found guilty of sexually assaulting his then-wife’s son many times during the period when the child was between 7 and 10 years old.
The court heard that the victim had moved out of the province after his mother left her attacker, but the victim did not reveal the attacks until she was 14 years old and has needed extensive treatment ever since.
The man also had a previous conviction for trying to gain access to a child from an online relationship he had with a woman in Kentucky who had a five-year-old daughter. The court heard that he tried to persuade the woman to bring her daughter to Canada for sexual purposes.
The royal attorney demanded six to seven years in prison, and defense attorney James Pennington demanded a suspended sentence to be served in the community.
The court eventually ruled for four years, plus a 10-year ban on firearms, a permanent seat on the national sex offender registry and a ban on finding work, volunteering or otherwise, which would put the man in power over children under 16. years.
The offender refused to speak, but the court heard a statement from the victim’s mother, who expressed extreme guilt and shame that she let the offender into her home.
“I do not think I can apologize [my son] enough, ”she wrote in a statement read aloud by Crown Prosecutor Ann Lerches.
“I am just amazed [my son] he still loves me. “
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