A Prince George provincial court judge reluctantly sentenced a 35-year-old local man to 18 months in jail followed by three years probation for sexually assaulting his common law spouse while she was in the psychiatric ward at University Hospital of Northern B.C.
In passing sentencing Tuesday, Judge Shannon Keyes said 2 1/2 years in jail would have been more appropriate. But in exchange for pleading guilty to the charge, the offence was treated as a summary conviction, and so subject to a lighter sentence than if it continued as an indictable offence.
The plea bargain "provided an enormous benefit" to the man, Keyes said.
Even so, the sentence given Tuesday was a marked increase from the term of three years probation with a suspended sentence originally proposed in a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels. Keyes found the proposal unfit and ordered counsel to come back with additional submissions.
The woman was in the ward as a result of abuse she had been suffering at the hands of the man at the time, Keyes noted. But they were still communicating and in July 2014, he agreed to deliver fresh clothing to the woman at the hospital.
Her roommate was not in the room and after he checked for surveillance cameras and tried to lock the room's door, he said he wanted to have sex with her.
"She said 'that is not happening,' but he would not take 'no' for an answer," Keyes said.
He took the woman by the arm to the small bathroom and locked its door.
The woman did not cry out or scream. Nor did she disclose the event to anyone until the next month, when a friend urged her to tell police. By that time, the man had been put on probation for assaulting the woman.
Although he pleaded guilty, the man continued to claim during an interview for a pre-sentence report that the sex was consensual. But Keyes found that irrelevant given the victim was in the psychiatric ward and so in no condition to give consent.
She found the man has failed to take full responsibility for his actions and further noted a history of abusing partners that included a conviction for assault for which he received a conditional discharge. Over the past 15 years, the father of two had been in four spousal relationships, one of which lasted eight years and the rest less than two years.
The man poses a significant risk to re-offend in Keyes' opinion.
"This offence is particularly deserving of condemnation from the public," Keyes said. "Every person should be safe as a patient in hospital and in particular should be safe from abuse by their spouse who's only permitted to be there because they are trusted to behave with kindness and respect because they are a spouse."
The man was also sentenced to a consecutive term of 30 days for breaching the probation he received for assaulting the woman after he visited her home when she told him she might have become pregnant as a result of the incident in the psychiatric ward.
