A man who distributed leaflets in a northern B.C. community alleging his toddler-aged grandchild was being sexual abused by his stepmother has been ordered to stay out of the town for three years.
The only time the man can stop in the community is to gas up, according to the conditions of a peace bond issued Thursday by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Crawford at the Prince George courthouse.
Crawford issued a publication ban on the names of the accused and the complainants and the communities they live in due to the matter's sensitive nature.
The case's origins date back to the child's July 2009 visit to his fraternal grandmother where the child made comments of a sexual nature.
The fraternal grandmother reported the comments to police who notified investigators at the provincial Ministry of Child and Family Development.
The investigators, in turn, interviewed the child, the stepparents and the child's siblings and concluded there were no grounds for allegations of sexual abuse.
But that was wasn't good enough for the grandfather, who concluded there was a coverup involving the police, the ministry and the stepparents.
In March, he traveled from his Alberta home to the community where the child and his family lives and dropped off at two grocery stores envelopes containing leaflets accusing the stepmother of being a pedophile who needs treatment.
One of the storekeepers found the envelope stuck to the door when opening up for the day and found the information quite disturbing, said Crawford, reiterating testimony given during a hearing.
"The witness said she knew the young couple, they're a nice young couple, well respected although she was not a friend," Crawford said.
The matter was soon reported to police and the second envelope was found at the other store.
Roughly a week-and-a-half later, the man returned to the community where he posted leaflets around the town, and visited the family's church where he attempted to raise the matter. A woman there called police and he was soon apprehended by the RCMP, who found hundreds of the leaflets in his car.
Crawford noted that the man had been divorced for 15 years from the fraternal grandmother, who lives in a community several hundred kilometres away from the child's primary home, and has never actually seen the child, the offspring of his son and daughter-in-law.
The couple gave the child up to the maternal grandmother who, in turn, put the him into the custody of her other daughter soon after he had turned one year old.
"He certainly caused a great deal of concern in [the community] and at least the few people who spoke [during the trial] appeared to have a good regard for the [stepparents]," Crawford said. "He did this, without ever having met anyone involved except his former wife.
"He has never met the [stepparents], save I suppose, the exchange in the courtroom and the same with [the daughter-in-law's] family."
Throughout the trial, the man, who did not bring a lawyer, continually asked to see the ministry's report on the matter. Crawford denied the request in part because of privacy issues but also because he found it was not relevant to the issue at hand.
The man had also attempted to file claims in small claims court over the allegations.
In issuing the restrictions, Crawford advised that the request for the report would more properly be dealt with in family court where the fraternal grandmother could seek a review of the custody agreement.
