A 34-year-old Prince George man was sentenced Thursday to a further seven years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault against his stepmother.
In issuing her decision, provincial court judge Shannon Keyes called the man's actions "extremely disturbing" and suggested he would have killed the woman if not for the timely arrival of police.
His name cannot be printed under a court-ordered publication ban against information that would identify the victim.
The attack occurred in June 2016, about four months after the woman's husband had died. The couple had raise the man since he was young and by the time of the incident he had moved into the basement of her home to help her with living expenses.
For a few days prior, he made advances on her which she rebuffed.
The attack occurred in the evening while the she was sleeping in her bedroom.
He initiated a brief tussle then left, prompting her to lock the doors to her home, jam a toilet paper roll into the bottom of the bedroom door and call 911. The call remained open and recording when the man returned through a window and resumed the struggle.
"I have listened to that recording. It is extremely disturbing," Keyes said, adding the woman's screams could be heard for several minutes.
The woman tried to escape but the toilet paper roll stopped her from getting out. She struck him with a metal curtain rod but to no avail. He caught her and threw her into the corner of the room, held her against the door by her throat and threw her against a wall.
At the time the woman was 57 years old, slightly more than five feet tall and weighed about 100 pounds. In contrast, he was about six inches taller and outweighed her by 80 pounds.
As he tried to force sexual intercourse on her, he covered her mouth and closed off her nose, prompting her to think she was going to die. The same thought ran through her mind when he pressed his entire body on top of her.
But at about that point he heard police sirens. By the time they were in the home, he was sitting on the couch. Blood smears were found throughout the home and on the man and the woman, who suffered a broken tooth and bruising and abrasions all over her body.
The woman is on pain medication, may need surgery, suffers from insomnia and worries he may come back once released from custody. It's unlikely the woman will "ever recover a sense of security in her own home," Keyes said.
The man has a criminal record consisting of minor thefts and breaches but no prior sexual offences. However, he was found to lack insight into his actions and was deemed a moderate to high risk to re-offend.
He has a history of substance abuse beginning when he was 12 years old, suffered a brain injury from a motor vehicle incident as a teen and has been supported for most of his life through disability benefits.
Keyes said the attack left her "gravely concerned" and called it prolonged, determined and sexually deviant.
In all, he was sentenced to nine years less credit of 419 days or 1 1/2 days for each actual day spent in custody prior to sentencing.
