A now 74-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for sexual offences committed in the 1970s.
The man, whose name is shielded by a court-ordered publication ban against information that might identify the victim, had pleaded guilty to one count each of indecent assault and gross indecency, committed over a seven-year period beginning in 1972, when the victim was seven years old and he was 22 years old.
According to an agreed statement of facts, he was in a relationship with the victim's stepaunt and had forced sex on the girl at least 30 times when she stayed at their home in Prince George.
In 2016, the victim filed a complaint with the Prince George RCMP and the man, who was living out of province by that time, was arrested.
Crown had been seeking five years in prison, the maximum allowed for the offences at the time they were committed, while defence counsel argued for a conditional sentence order - effectively house arrest - of up to two years less a day.
Quoting from a pre-sentence report, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ron Tindale said the man felt terrible for what he had done but also displayed limited insight into his actions and, at one point, claimed the incidents did not occur as often as the victim asserted.
In a statement presented to the court, the victim said what the man had done to her has "coloured my whole life and still does."
As a child, the acts left her feeling that nowhere was safe and as an adult, she continues to suffer from nightmares and has trouble forming intimate relationships.
In settling on three years, Tindale found a conditional sentence order would fall short of sending a message of denunciation and deterence but also noted the man's lack of a criminal record, his old age and his health issues.
Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, the man sat in a walker as he made his way into the courtroom and was unable to lift himself into the prisoner's box.
The victim attended the hearing on Tuesday at the courthouse. Her mother put an arm around her shoulder as she watched the man being led away by a sheriff.
