Crown and defence counsels are at odds over how much time a man should get for luring a young girl for a sexual purpose.
Positions ranging from time served plus three years probation to an additional two years behind bars plus two years probation were presented Tuesday during a sentencing hearing in Prince George for Kevin James Belcourt.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Belcourt, 39, was posing as a 12-year-od girl named Emily on a social media platform when in October 2019 he managed to convince an 11-year-old girl to meet up with him.
Despite the fact that he was a much older man, he was still able to convince the girl, who was described as "highly vulnerable, lonely and looking for friends," to engage in an escalating series of sexual encounters that ended when her mother became suspicious and uncovered what was going on.
RCMP arrested Belcourt in late November 2019 and he has remained in custody ever since.
It was not the first time Belcourt has done time for such an offence. Just four months before making contact with his latest victim, he had completed time in custody and had begun serving a term of probation for luring another 11-year-old girl using a similar method, the court was told.
Crown counsel Marie Louise Ahrens argued that Belcourt should serve a further two years in a federal institution where he would have access to a program for sexual offenders not available in the provincial system.
And because the victim is under 16 years old, Ahrens said he could still be ordered to serve two years probation upon completion of the sentence, a penalty typically reserved for that aftermath of terms in jail lasting no more than two years less a day and served in a provincial jail.
Because inmates receive credit of time and a half for each day in custody prior to sentencing, defence counsel Stefan Catona said Belcourt has effectively served five years and taking counselling for pedophilia disorder could be one of the terms issued as part of his probation.
Belcourt successfully completed a substance abuse program while serving a term of probation for trafficking for an earlier offence, Catona also noted.
As a fallback, Catona said Belcourt could be sentenced to seven years less credit for time served, such that he would serve the remainder of the term in the provincial system and possibly be sent to Fort Mountain Correctional Centre, which houses a program for sexual offenders.
Catona found himself at odds with B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church over how to treat his client's refusal to undergo a new psychiatric assessment after being granted a chance to get a second opinion.
In June 2022, Belcourt pleaded guilty to sexually interfering with a person under 16 years old, telecommunicating to lure a child under 16 years old and possessing child pornography.
But the psychiatrist who subsequently assessed Belcourt was under the impression he pleaded guilty to different offences and in January, Church agreed to delay sentencing so he could be assessed by a different psychiatrist. However, Belcourt refused to cooperate, the court was told, and the original assessment was adopted for hearing on Tuesday.
Catona urged Church to refrain from assigning any negative inference to Belcourt's refusal to cooperate. Church suggested that might be a tall order.
"It's hard not to reach a conclusion that your client is playing games with the process," Church said.
Church will issue a decision on sentencing at a later date.
