A Prince George man will remain behind bars after the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that found him guilty of charges related to seven-year sexual relationship with a boy he had first encountered while babysitting.
Walter Albert Ceal, 43, was sentenced to seven years in jail in June 2010 on counts of sexual assault, touching for a sexual purpose and inviting, counseling or inciting touching for a sexual purpose.
The offences involved numerous and progressive instances of masturbation, fellatio and anal intercourse and the victim was between the ages of nine and 16 years old when the offences occurred.
The offending ended when the victim attempted suicide and made his first disclosure while under psychiatric care following his admission to hospital.
The victim's identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
In the appeal, Ceal's lawyer argued there were inconsistencies between the evidence the boy provided at trial and the three prior statements made to police, but in a reasons for judgment issued Monday, Justice Daphne Smith disagreed.
"In my view, the trial judge's reasons for finding [the victim's] evidence credible and reliable do not demonstrate any palpable and overriding error," Smith wrote. "The verdict flowed logically from those findings and in my opinion is reasonable and supported by the evidence."
In reaching the verdict last year, Supreme Court Justice John Truscott noted that while Ceal denied any sexual activity with the boy, he admitted he and the boy slept together in the same bed on many occasions.
Truscott also made note of e-mails from Ceal to the boy that included a number of suggestive and intimate comments that could only be interpreted as the "words of a lover."
