A Prince George man will serve a further two years in jail for luring an 11-year-old girl just months after he had finished a sentence for committing a series of similar offences.
Kevin James Belcourt, 39, will also serve three years probation once he has finished his term behind bars under the terms of a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels meant to ensure he is sent to a federal institution where he can participate in programming for sexual offenders.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Belcourt was posing as a 12-year-old girl named Emily on a social media platform when in October 2019 he managed to convince the 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.
He was arrested on Nov. 30, 2019 and has remained in custody since then. 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.
Sentencing for Belcourt was originally contested, with defence counsel seeking time served. Belcourt had also wanted a second-opinion on a risk assessment only to decide to stay with the first one when granted the opportunity to receive a new evaluation.
However, midway through a hearing in May, Belcourt relented and instructed his counsel to agree with Crown's position on sentencing. He had also pleaded guilty to three counts, preventing the need for a trial, although the victim had to testify at a preliminary inquiry before he took the step.
For his previous offence, Belcourt had been sentenced to time-served and lacked a release plan at the time, Justice Marguerite Church noted in endorsing the joint submission.
Referencing the risk assessment report, Church said Belcourt presents a high risk to re-offend. The Justice took note of the psychiatrist's recommendation that Belcourt "gain some insight into his pedophilic disorder and seek treatment for it, preferably by immediately starting cognitive behaviour therapy and then upon release undergoing immediate assessment and treatment in a sexual offender program."
Once credit for time served prior to sentencing is taken into account, Belcourt was issued a term adding up to seven years and 3 1/2 months.
Belcourt will be on the national sexual offender registry for the rest of his life. He was also issued a lifetime firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample.
Terms of his probation include not being in the presence of anyone under the age of 16 years and to stay away from parks, schools, playgrounds and other areas where they are known to congregate.
