A B.C. Supreme Court Justice found a former Prince George man guilty Thursday of a long list of sex crimes against two of his stepdaughters from the time they were young girls.
Justice Selwyn Romilly's verdict drew smiles, expressions of relief and later applause from about a dozen people, comprised of the victims and their family and friends, in the gallery at the Prince George courthouse.
In contrast the man, whose name cannot be printed under a court-ordered publication ban against information that identifies the victims, appeared disappointed although generally without expression as he had been throughout the lengthy trial.
After Crown and defence counsel were given the Justice's lengthy written reasons for judgment, Romilly, speaking from Vancouver via a video link, limited his comments to saying the man was guilty of 13 counts.
The counts include sexual assault, sexual interference of a person under 14 years old, publishing child pornography and bestiality for acts that occurred while he was living with the girls and their mother and other sisters and brothers in Prince George.
In his 72-page decision, Romilly found that testimony from the victims and their mother was credible, "marked with candour," and given in a "very forthright fashion." As for the accused, Romilly found him to be a "shameless liar" and had "great difficulty believing anything he said."
A date-stamped image of the accused and the older girl naked in bed together when she was 15 years old was among the evidence, as was a video with the girl performing sex on the man while he operated the camera, Romilly noted.
The man, who no longer lives in Prince George, will remain out on bail until sentencing, a process expected to require a two-day hearing in which the two victims, now in their 20s, will likely give victim impact statements.
Crown prosecutor Cassandra Malfair is seeking a pre-sentence report with a psychiatric component and a risk assessment in the interim and a date for the hearing will be set early next month.
Malfair made a brief argument in favour of putting the man in custody immediately, but Romilly agreed with defence lawyer Tony Zipp's assertion that the man has consistently lived up to the terms of his release since he was charged and brought to trial.
The trial took up three weeks in September 2012, resumed in May for a further three weeks of testimony and was followed by seven days of closing arguments.
During the trial, the court heard testimony about how the man groomed the two girls to satisfy his sexual fetishes after he moved into the home when they were eight and 10 years old.
He began fondling them at about age 12 and within a few years, the acts had escalated to oral sex and intercourse. Graphic images from videotaped recordings were presented in court as evidence.
Most of the sessions occurred in the master bedroom when the mother was away at work or studying for a post-secondary degree she was pursuing. A closed-circuit video system was installed in the bedroom so he could keep an eye on the rest of the house after the mother almost caught him in bed with one of the victims, the court heard.
He would often invoke religion and claimed his actions were endorsed by God as a way to keep them from being promiscuous at school. And he would methodically work them up to something he wanted them to do, often by presenting them with pornographic stories depicting the scenarios he was seeking, with the victims' names inserted.
They would often relent to avoid punishment later on or simply so they could move or get some sleep. The sessions often lasted late into the night and the two usually looked exceptionally tired in the mornings, the court heard.
When he took the stand to testify, the man had claimed he had sex with both victims but only after they had turned 18 years old and after they had initiated the encounters. He also testified that either the mother or the girls downloaded the pornographic material found on his computer.
The family went to police in December 2010 after the younger victim told her mother about the abuse and the man was soon arrested and charged. By then the couple had split up and the man was living in a Prince George apartment where police found computer equipment and other evidence.
Romilly found the complainants had no motive to lie, noting the older victim did not go to police and became involved only when her family told her the police were going to be called.
