A Prince George man was found guilty Monday of having inappropriate contact with two young girls when he lived with them a decade ago.
B.C. Supreme Court Justise Glenn Parrett levied the guilty verdict on the man, 45, for two counts of sexual interference of a person under the age of 14. A publication ban on the case restricts the publication of the identity of the man and his victims. Two additional counts of sexual assault were stayed.
The offenses took place between 2003 and 2006, while the two victims - the daughter and niece of the accused's girlfriend - were living under the same roof. Both girls, now 19 and 20, were eight years old when they moved in.
During the course of the trial, one of the victims - the daughter of the girlfriend of the accused - testified that one day she was called into a bedroom, ordered to lay on the bed and pull down her jeans and underwear. The accused did the same and touched himself with one hand while fondling her with the other.
She testified that she was told to keep quiet and not tell her mother, the court heard. The victim also testified that in addition to other incidents of being touched in a similar manner, there were nights she would wake up to it happening in her room.
"She testified that she knew it was the accused because of his voice telling her to be quiet and the fact that she could see him in the light from her night light. She testified that she learned to be quiet because 'What could I do? I probably weighed 60 pounds,'" Parrett read in his reasons for judgment.
The other victim also testified to being awoken one night by the accused licking her leg and inner thigh. When she began to kick and scream, he put his hand over her mouth, she testified, and told her that if she told her aunt, he would hurt her. She also testified that she awoke one night and saw the accused on the room's other bed with her cousin, but rolled over and went back to sleep.
In 2006, both left the home for the Native Friendship Centre, where they were subsequently interviewed and placed in separate group homes. One of the victims eventually made a statement to the Smithers police about the incidents in 2012.
The mother/aunt of the victims was also called to testify, but Parrett said he found her to be a "less than satisfactory witness."
"I found that her overall interest appeared to be defending her actions as a parent and guardian to the extent of exaggerating if not outright fabricating events portraying herself in a better light," Parrett said.
The judge had a similar view of testimony from the accused, calling his evidence "on important matters... exaggerated, false and in some cases contrived."
For example, both the accused and the victim's guardian told the court they sat the girls down for a conversation about "good and bad touching," in light of the accused's previous conviction for sexually touching the 10-year-old daughter of a common-law wife in the mid 1990s. In their testimony, both girls denied that conversation ever took place.
The accused also said there were extra eyes and ears around in the form of his girlfriend's sister who lived with them full-time when the sexual touching was alleged to have begun. That testimony was later contradicted by the girlfriend who said her sister stayed with them occasionally for two or three weeks during the same time frame.
The accused also testified he had minimal contact with the girls, never entering their bedroom unless invited. This was also contradicted by rebuttal testimony from the girlfriend, who said he regularly entered the room to collect laundry, to make sure the girls were awake in the morning and would give them piggy-back rides.
The accused will be sentenced at a later date following the completion of a pre-sentence report with a psychiatric risk assessment.
