Nunavut man with STD attempts rape of five-year-old, gets two years jail
“This act is as abhorrent to Inuit culture as it is to mainstream Canadian society”
An Iqaluit man guilty of sexual interference on a five-year-old girl will spend another two years less a day at the Baffin Correctional Centre, Nunavut Justice Robert Kilpatrick decided. (FILE PHOTO)
An Iqaluit man, 20, who pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference for an attempted rape of his five-year-old niece in October 2013, will serve another two years less a day in prison — on top of the approximately eight months he’s already served in remand.
The man, known only as C.A., was homeless at the time of the incident and was living in Iqaluit at the house of his brother, as L.A, Justice Robert Kilpatrick of the Nunavut Court of Justice said in a written judgment released Nov. 15.
In Oct. 19, 2013, L.A. asked C.A. to babysit his daughter, A.B. When C.A. found himself alone with the child, he took her into a bedroom and removed her clothes, Kilpatrick’s judgment said.
“He puts A.B. on a bed. C.A. then removes his own pants and puts on a condom. He attempts to penetrate A.B.’s vagina, but is unsuccessful in doing so. C.A. eventually gives up, but not before causing some injury to the child’s genitals,” the judgment said.
Kilpatrick said C.A., who was sober, knew what he was doing — and there was “no evidence to suggest that C.A. was in any way mistaken about the nature and quality of the act that he was perpetrating.”
“He had used a condom in an effort to mitigate the effect of his intended sexual intercourse. C.A. knew that involving a five-year-old child in this sexual activity was both legally wrong and morally reprehensible,” Kilpatrick said.
“This act is as abhorrent to Inuit culture as it is to mainstream Canadian society. The fundamental Inuit value requiring respect of others, particularly respect of the very young and the very old, was violated by this conduct.”
When A.B.’s mother got home, she discovered her daughter’s injury and took the child to the hospital, where she was treated and found to have acquired a sexually transmitted disease. Police and youth protection officials became involved.
Two months later, C.A. was found to be infected with the same STD.
While the little girl doesn’t appear to have suffered psychological harm, that doesn’t reduce an offender’s overall moral culpability for such an offence, Kilpatrick said.
“It is an offender’s willingness to assume the risk of causing such harm that propels this type of offence to the highest level of moral culpability,” he said.
Among the mitigating factors: C.A.’s guilty plea, which demonstrated some remorse and meant his young victim didn’t have to testify in court.
C.A, who was custom-adopted out, suffered a childhood filled with rejection and trauma, Kilpatrick said.
While in foster care, C.A, was taken hostage for some hours by a man wielding a knife inside his foster home.
“There was a standoff with the police. When the armed intruder attempted to leave the home with C.A. as his prisoner, he was shot and killed by the police in front of C.A,” Kilpatrick said.
C.A. may also suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, he suggested.
But Kilpatrick said to violate the sexual integrity of a child “where there is a duty to protect, can only be regarded as a profound breach of a trust that the law regards as sacred.”
That’s why he said he wants to deliver, “an exemplary and denunciatory sentence,” which would “reinforce and repair the fundamental social values that have been undermined by this breach of trust ”
The two-years-less-a-day sentence is produced by subtracting the 240 days that the man served in remand from the 969-day total that Kilpatrick sentenced him to.
C.A.’s commitment to his own rehabilitation while in jail on remand “tips the balance in terms of the overall length of sentence,” Kilpatrick said, adding that “but for the lack of criminal history and C.A.’s involvement in programming, the sentence would have been longer.”
After finishing his sentence, C.A, must also abide by various conditions, including a three-year probation period after his release, and complete, if directed by his probation officer, sex offender counselling, anger management counselling, and trauma counselling related to his own victimization.
Among other conditions, C.A. will must stay away from the victim and any other children under the age of 14, and register as a sex offender with the national DNA databank.
Kilpatrick also recommended the man serve time at the Rankin Inlet healing facility.
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