A 76-year old McBride man was given a 30 month jail term Tuesday morning after a judge dismissed his counsel's argument that a jail sentence would be grossly disproportionate.
The man, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, was convicted in the fall of 2016 of sexually exploiting a 16-year old girl over an 18-month period. The sentence was delayed by more than two years after the man's defence counsel, Keith Jones, argued that jail time would violate his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms due to his age, the fact that he's never been in jail and that he was supporting a wife and son.
In his decision to deny the application for exemption from the mandatory minimum sentence for the offence, Justice Ron Tindale said a jail sentence was necessary in order to provide redress for the family of the victim and to deter similar offences.
"In my view, the only sentence available that will fulfill the principles of denunciation and deterrence, redress and rehabilitation is a jail sentence," Tindale said.
Tindale noted, however, that it was relevant that the man was of First Nations heritage and that he had experienced sexual abuse as a child after being adopted by a non-First Nations family.
The Crown had argued that the lengthy period of time in which the exploitation took place, as well as the young age of the victim, constituted reasonable grounds for a jail term.
During the trial, the court heard that the victim and her mother had moved into the man's McBride home in September of 2009. The girl's mother relied on a limited income at the time and had left an abusive situation with the girl's father. The man would have sex with the girl when her mother was away, and when she joined him for trips as a long-haul truck driver.
The victim had testified in court that at the time she had "nowhere else to go" and was dependent upon the man. The girl and her mother eventually moved out of the man's home, and a complaint was filed with police in March 2013.
