A 35-year-old man will serve another year in jail for sexually interfering with his two young stepchildren.
In passing the sentence at the Prince George courthouse Tuesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Richard Goepel recommended that the time be served at Ford Mountain Correctional Centre in Chilliwack, where the man can go through a 15-week treatment program for sexual abusers.
The man, whose name cannot be printed under a court-ordered publication ban because it will identify the victims, had been a victim of sexual abuse when he was young, Goepel noted, but added that the man was in a position of trust and care in relation to his two victims.
"As a victim of sexual abuse yourself, you well know the damage you have caused," Goepel told the man just prior to giving the verdict.
The incidents with the two stepchildren, a boy and a girl, occurred in 2009-10 when the man was living with his now estranged wife and two other younger boys of their own in a Prince George home.
In the case of the one stepchild, a boy then 10 years old, the court heard that he and his sister were sleeping on a futon in the living room one night and his parents were sleeping on a mattress on the floor elsewhere in the room.
The boy woke up and smelled something burning and then saw his stepfather stumble towards him and then put his hand under the covers and fondle the boy's genitals for several minutes.
The incidents with the girl occurred when she was eight years old and involved wrestling while the mother was out of the house that would end with him rubbing her vagina and breasts for "minutes not seconds," Goepel said in recounting testimony.
"She said that on some occasions, when she told him to stop, he would say 'what am I doing,'" Goepel said. "Sometimes he'd stop, sometimes he did not."
A police investigation began in April 2011 when the man had left the home and the boy told the mother what happened. The girl then disclosed to police what happened to her.
The case went to trial when the stepfather denied the incidents, forcing the children and the mother to testify. After he was found guilty, he told a pre-sentence report officer that he had no recollection of the offences and was likely intoxicated at the times.
The man has an extensive criminal record and has spent most of the time since he was 18 years old in jail or custody. He and the mother initiated a relationship that Goepel described as dysfunctional just after he had got out of jail.
He received a total sentence of three years consisting of two consecutive terms of 18 months for each of the convictions but also received two years credit for the time he had already served in custody, reducing the further time he must spend in jail to one year.
He was also sentenced to three years probation with conditions, including to not contact the family and to refrain from taking on positions, both volunteer and for pay, that would put him in a position of authority over someone 16 years old or younger.
