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Sentencing for child lurer Kevin James Belcourt delayed

A second psychiatric assessment ordered in answer mix up over guilty pleas
kevin-james-belcourt
Kevin James Belcourt

Sentencing for a Prince George man who pleaded guilty to luring a child for a sexual purpose was put on hold Tuesday so he can go through a new psychiatric assessment.

In June 2022, Kevin James Belcourt pleaded guilty to sexually interfering with a person under 16 years old, telecommunicating to lure a child under 16 years old and possessing child pornography. 

But the psychiatrist who subsequently assessed Belcourt was under the impression he pleaded guilty to different offences.

In response, Belcourt "became upset and did not interact with the doctor to the level he needed to," and that led to a "tainted" outcome, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church was told during a hearing at the Prince George courthouse.

The assessment was filed in October and, once the discrepancy was discovered, the initial plan was to have the psychiatrist testify during the sentencing hearing. But in the name of fairness, Crown prosecution eventually agreed with defence counsel to instead seek a judge's permission to have a second assessment carried out in an expedited fashion.

Along with determining Belcourt's risk of committing similar crimes in the future, Church agreed with defence counsel Stefan Catona's request that the assessment also take into account any mental health issues Belcourt may be dealing with.

The hope now is to have a hearing on sentencing by sometime in early-to-mid-April.

In December 2019, Prince George RCMP issued a statement saying Belcourt had been arrested and charged with alleged offences related to a single youth, but suspected there may be more victims.

"Police believe that Belcourt communicated with the victim via the Snapchat social media app which facilitated several in-person meetings," RCMP said at the time. "Belcourt's Snapchat vanity names included Emily Mojo, James Biggs and Eddy100."

RCMP asked anyone who had contact with those accounts or with Belcourt between July 1 and Nov. 30, 2019, when he was arrested, to contact the detachment's sex crimes unit.