Quiet family man molested teen girls while drunk

An Iqaluit man who pleaded guilty last month to fondling four teenaged girls was sentenced this past Tuesday to 17 months in jail.

"[The accused] is a citizen with a dark secret," wrote Justice Robert Kilpatrick in a written verdict.

"For many years he has lived a quiet and unassuming life in Iqaluit. He is a family man and experienced tradesman. While under the influence of alcohol, [he] has molested adolescent females."

The man, whose name may not be published or broadcast because he's related to one of the victims, admitted to touching three girls, friends of his daughter, while they were sleeping over at his house.

The fourth girl, his niece, was fondled several times when the two were watching movies together or while she was sleeping.

The offences against the man's niece were the most serious, Kilpatrick wrote, so the man was sentenced to 14 months in jail for that offence. He sentenced the man to one month for each of the other three counts.

All four jail sentences are to be served consecutively, or one after the other, for a total of 17 months.

The offences all occurred when the man was drunk, the court heard in March. At the time, Greg Nearing, the man's lawyer, said his client should receive only a conditional sentence because he's an otherwise good citizen when he's not drinking.

But without expert testimony connecting the man's drinking with the offences, Kilpatrick wrote he's not able to accurately gauge the man's potential to re-offend. And Kilpatrick wrote he can only impose a conditional sentence when he's convinced the man is unlikely to re-offend.

Crown lawyer Rachel Furey argued for jail time because of the impact of the assaults on the girls' emotional development.

Kilpatrick agreed, though he acknowledged the man was likely to respect a court order banning him from drinking.

"A custodial sanction is not only appropriate but necessary to reflect the seriousness of the four offences and the need for deterrence and denunciation," the judge wrote.

And house arrest for a man who lives an urbanized lifestyle doesn't hold the same punishment as it would for someone who spends more time on the land, Kilpatrick wrote.

The man will be on probation for two years after his release, must have no contact with the victims, except for letters of apology he must write, and undergo alcohol and sex offender counselling.

He's also banned from being in the unsupervised presence of children under 14, with the exception of his own children.