WARNING: This article contains details about the sexual abuse of a minor.
A young Edmonton girl stayed away from the courtroom Monday as attorneys proposed how long the man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted her should be behind bars.
The girl was eight years old when she was attacked. Her identity is protected by a publication ban. On March 10, 2020, she was playing with a friend in Edmonton’s west-central McQueen neighbourhood.
When it was time for dinner, she was walking home through an alley when a white car appeared. Wade Stein wore a mask. He got out, grabbed her and put her in the back of the car.
Steyn bound her hands, feet and mouth with duct tape and then drove her to a remote location where he sexually assaulted her.
The forty minutes of terror the little girl endured had a devastating effect on her and her family.
“When she got into the house she held me tightly and told me she had been kidnapped,” the mother told the court in a victim impact statement.
“We held each other and cried together and then more details came out. Hearing my daughter tell me she was raped broke my heart.”
The mother said that for the past two years, her daughter had trouble sleeping, suffered from nightmares and found it difficult to return to school after classes resumed.
“Some days when we let our daughter ride her bike with friends, my husband and I have to remind ourselves that if we keep her at home and hold her as tight as we really want to, we’re breaking her spirit,” the mother said through tears.
“So we let her go and we pray for her healing and wholeness.”
The child’s father is the one who found her and brought her home that day.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened,” he said in his victim impact statement.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t feel the pain and horror of that moment. Or anger enough to make my blood boil and think what I would do to this man if I ever caught him.”
A despised being – the victim’s father
He called Steen a “despicable creature” who hurt his little girl.
He also said he was racked with guilt because he felt he had failed as a father to protect his child.
The victim’s aunt told the court she was haunted by the terror her niece felt during the ordeal.
“I was horrified to learn that Wade Stein had been prepared for this crime. He had prepared tape, a blanket and a mask and was waiting in his car,” the aunt said. “She thought he was going to kill and eat her.
She called Stein’s release on bail back into his victim’s community a miscarriage of justice.
Wade Stein’s temporary release on bail led to protests organized outside his mother McQueen’s house, where he was serving house arrest. (Rafi Boujikanian/CBC)
“Releasing a child rapist on bail anywhere is bad enough. Letting him back into the neighborhood of crime is worse,” said the aunt. To let a child rapist into a house that is meters away from his victim’s only safe place of refuge? It was unforgivable.”
The Crown and defense are far apart at sentencing
Stein pleaded guilty to kidnapping, sexual assault and unlawful touching in February before the case went to trial.
On Monday, prosecutor Keith Nichols asked the judge to impose a 20-year sentence.
“This particular case is exceptional,” Nichols said. “It is extraordinary in its depravity, in the shocking nature of the crime committed by Mr. Steyn … It is extraordinary in the harm he has caused.”
The prosecutor pointed to the planning and deliberation that led to the crime.
“It was a crime of opportunity, but it was certainly premeditated,” he argued.
Wade Stein during his arrest in 2020 (Edmonton Police Service)
Stein’s lawyer insisted his client did not plan the crime in advance. Mark Jordan said Stein had a mask in his vehicle for work-related reasons and a red band because he had recently moved.
“These were serious crimes, but they were serious crimes as far as possible in that day,” Jordan said, asking the judge to impose a 10-year sentence.
“He takes full responsibility and is deeply remorseful for his actions,” Gladu said in a court report. “He understands the victim must have been very scared. He prays for her every day.”
Jordan said Stein, 39, was sexually assaulted when he was seven, suffered from depression for most of his life and tried to kill himself twice in his late 20s. years.
The defense also argued that Steyn’s sentence should be reduced because of the fear Steyn and his mother felt when he was briefly released on bail in June 2020, and because of all the publicity the case has generated. With those factors, along with credit for time already served, Jordan suggested three years and seven months be removed from any sentence imposed.
The sentencing hearing continues on Tuesday. Stene is expected to speak in court.
Judge Susan Richardson said she would make her sentencing decision Wednesday afternoon.
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