A Prince George Provincial Court judge sentenced a man to 20 months of home confinement on June 25 after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault.
The sentencing happened under a publication ban that covers the identities of both the victim and the accused.
Judge Judith Doulis said the man entered a guilty plea on Oct. 24, 2024. He admitted that he spent the night together with a female companion and they became sexually intimate in the morning of Oct. 3, 2021. When the woman asked if he had a condom, he said he did not and she stopped the encounter.
They resumed intimacy, but he continued to force himself on her,“despite knowing she would not consent to sexual intercourse itself,” Doulis said.
The woman complained to the RCMP on Oct. 13, 2021 and the man was arrested a week later. He confessed to the incident. Almost a year later in court, he pleaded guilty as charged.
“As this offence involved penile penetration, it was highly invasive,” Doulis said.
Doulis described the man as a “youthful Indigenous offender with no criminal record” who has attended a residential treatment facility for alcohol addiction. A report to the court said he had suffered due to his Indigenous heritage, lengthy periods of homelessness and unemployment.
In his favour, Doulis said, the man apologized to the victim after the incident and admitted it to police. The victim did not provide an impact statement.
Doulis said the man will spend the first 16 months of his sentence under house arrest, with limited allowance to leave for personal business and urgent medical care. The final four months of the sentence will be under a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. The man must not attempt to communicate with his victim or attend anywhere she may be.
