Incest conviction sends father to prison

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This article was published 11/03/2015 (3333 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Steinbach man who first began sexually assaulting his daughter when she was 16-years-old was sentenced to seven years in prison in Steinbach provincial court on Thursday.

Judge Ray Wyant had deferred his decision after hearing the facts of case last week.

Court heard then how the man’s acts of sexual assault escalated over time from fondling to unprotected sex. When his daughter was 18-years-old she became pregnant and gave birth to a girl of her own in 2013.

The identity of the victim as well as details which could identify the victim are protected by a court order.

The Crown had requested a seven year jail term for the incest and sexual assault charges. The man’s defence argued mitigating factors meant a sentence of two years, with three years of supervised conditions was more appropriate.

Wyant was generally dismissive of the defence’s claim to mitigating factors.

The judge noted the starting point for incest sentences is over five years of jail time. He explained that sentences move upwards depending on the severity but they shouldn’t be expected to fall below that minimum based on mitigating factors.

The defence had argued, for example, the victim was not a young child when the assaults began and was an adult when her baby was born.

“Somehow this accused should be credited? That’s an error in logic,” Wyant said.

“Incest, by its very nature, is a major sexual assault,” he said. “It violates a fundamental foundation of our society.”

The judge said parents must be responsible for their children and that courts must also be responsible for children in the care of parents.

While no evidence of psychological impact on the victim was presented as part of the sentencing, Wyant again said lack of such evidence should not be considered mitigating.

“I do not conclude that the victim was not scarred by her father,” he said, adding that there was more than just one person victimized by this case.

Wyant spoke of how the victim’s daughter will grow up with her grandfather being her father.

“How much more evidence of harm do we need than that?” Wyant asked. “We don’t just have one victim. We have two.”

“It’s just messed up,” he said bluntly.

The judge also chastised the man for his lack of insight into his behavior noting it almost seems the man blames the victim to some extent.

“Let me be clear,” Wyant said. “In no way is the victim to be blamed in any sense for what occurred.”

Wyant said the man was manipulative and controlling as he groomed the victim with escalating acts of sexual assault. The judge also noted how the man dominated all aspects of the victim’s life such as choosing her friends and not allowing her to leave the house without his permission.

In addition to the seven year jail sentence, the man will be banned from owning weapons for ten years and placed of the national sex offender registry for 20 years upon his release. He is also required to provide a DNA sample.

While in custody he is barred from contact with the victim.