Child molester to be supervised for five years

An Igloolik pedophile will submit to five years of supervision in his community after he gets out of jail in about six months, but it's not clear how a sole Corrections Service of Canada officer in faraway Iqaluit will keep tabs on him.

Justice Earl Johnson issued the order Jan. 25 in a written judgment, after hearing arguments from lawyers at a hearing held Nov. 27-30 last fall.

"CSC will have to do the best that it can under the circumstances," Johnson said, after noting that there is no corrections officer in Igloolik.

The man, who cannot be identified because of his relationship with the victim, pleaded guilty in April of 2007 to sexually assaulting his 13-year-old stepson while the boy was sleeping.

The man, who admitted to being high on marijuana at the time, stopped when the boy woke up.

But at the time of the offence, the man was under a probation order related to a 2002 conviction for assaulting a 13-year-old stepdaughter. That probation order forbade him from communicating or residing with a person under the age of 16.

And in 1994, the man was convicted of sexually assaulting, over a one year period, 11 young Igloolik girls aged six to 11.

"It was an organized scheme where the accused identified, tested and groomed his victims for a range of sexual activities short of intercourse," Johnson said.

After that conviction, the man was given a five-year jail sentence, most of which he served at the Bowden Institution, a federal penitentiary in Alberta. While there, the man received some exposure to programs for sex offenders.

For his most recent conviction, Johnson found that that an appropriate sentence would be 32 months in jail. But the incident dates back to 2003, and the man was taken into custody in November of 2005.

That means the man should get 26 months of credit for time already served in remand, Johnson found, which means he'll serve a net sentence of only six more months in jail.

And Johnson rejected Crown arguments asserting that the man should spend at least two more years in jail, which would require that he be sent to the Fenbrook institution in Ontario.

The Crown lawyer, Peter Chisholm, argued this would make it possible for the man to benefit from the highly regarded Tupiq program offered at Fenbrook.

But Johnson sided with the defence on that point.

"If this court acceded to the submissions of the Crown, the principle would be established that it is acceptable to increase the sentence because of the need for treatment for the accused, and the entire sentencing regime in Nunavut would be undermined," the defence lawyers said.

Johnson also said there is sex offender treatment available at the Baffin Correctional Centre, where the man will serve his six remaining months.

After that, he'll spend five years in Igloolik under supervision.

During that time, the man must not be in the presence of a person under the age of 14 unless another sober adult is present, and must abstain from alcohol and drugs.

He is also banned for life from owning firearms, must give a DNA sample, and must register as a sex offender.