The victims of a former Prince George man convicted of a long list of sex crimes against two of his stepdaughters continue to suffer an emotional toll characterized by self-hatred and mistrust of others, a B.C. Supreme Court Justice was told during a sentencing hearing Wednesday.
"I have really bad nightmares and wake up crying or scared and can't sleep," said one of the stepdaughters in a victim impact statement.
"I stay home a lot because everything reminds me of the things that happened...I feel so alone, like no one could love someone like me."
In August, following a seven-week trial, Justice Selwyn Romilly found the man guilty of 13 counts dating back to when the victims were young girls. His name cannot be printed under a court-ordered publication ban against information that identifies the victims.
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.
"This abuse has affected every emotional part of me," the stepdaughter said. "I can never be a little girl. He broke my trust as a young girl and twisted it to please him. I hate him in every way possible and I want him to go to jail for a long time so he can never hurt anyone again."
The other stepdaughter said in her statement that due to the isolation the man imposed on her while growing up, she is constantly nervous around people and large groups.
"I have a tendency to be a shut-in for weeks because I am too terrified to interact with people or go outside simply because the noise or light is too stressful," she said.
She relies on antidepressants to cope and has issues with drugs and alcohol because she was introduced to both at a young age by the man "and encouraged to use when I was upset."
There have been days when she has been unable to get out of bed and she failed her last semester at university "simply because I did not attend."
The girls' mother also gave a statement, in which she expressed feelings of betrayal, in part to the man's habit of invoking religion to get his way with the girls, both now adults in their early 20s.
"The idea that a man of God could and would behave in such a disgusting way had me question who God was," she said.
The emotional impact of learning what had happened effectively put an end to her own educational goals - she was unable to finish medical school and no longer has access to student loans - and she ran into financial trouble.
"Fatigue was a huge factor I faced in the days and weeks and months that followed," she said. "I was not able to work in a job that would pay enough to keep the house and that went into foreclosure and I went into personal bankruptcy. I was consumed by hatred, guilt, shame, remorse and a loss of hope."
The victims and their mother also had words about The Citizen's coverage of the trial. Although their names were never published, they said people were able to figure out who was involved and confronted them about details printed in the newspaper, a situation they called extremely embarrassing.
Although most of the charges carry a maximum of 10 years in prison, Crown prosecutor Cassandra Malfair is seeking a total sentence of 17 years, arguing in part that the convictions related to acts against the two girls should be served consecutively, rather than concurrently.
"Two lives destroyed, they should be served consecutively," Malfair said. "[The man] should not get a two-for-one discount."
And other than the negligible weight of having no criminal record, Malfair argued there are no mitigating factors to take into account.
In contrast, she said the aggravating factors are overwhelming.
"In the Crown's view [the man] has essentially abused his position of trust to manipulate and coerce the complainants into carrying out every deviant pornographic fantasy which crossed his mind while creating a fiction that it was the complainants who wanted or needed to be sexually assaulted by him," Malfair said.
Defence counsel Tony Zipp will make submissions today and it's expected Romilly will give his decision on Friday.
