Pedophile sentenced for molesting young girls

SARA MINOGUE

A pedophile from Igloolik who pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual assault against girls aged eight to 13 has been sentenced to six years in prison in a case a Crown attorney compared with that of notorious sex offender Ed Horne.

Defence lawyer Peter Fulsang disputed that comparison, calling his client’s sexual assaults “minor,” but he did agree with Justice Earl Johnson that sentencing his client was now a matter of protecting the community rather than rehabilitation.

Simeonie Pakinik Issigaitok, 52, pleaded guilty in Iqaluit last month to assaulting eight young girls.

The assaults took place in 2002 and involved girls visiting a niece who lives at his parents’ house in Hall Beach, where Issigaitok also lived. Three more cases involved visitors to a relative’s house in Hall Beach, where Issigaitok was staying at the time.

One of the victims, a nine-year-old girl, was working on a puzzle of Jesus when Issigaitok took her clothes off and began touching her vagina with his hands and mouth. He ran away when someone else came into the room.

That assault, and another case where Issigaitok touched another nine-year-old’s vagina under her clothes, marked the most serious offences. In six other incidents, the girls were touched with their clothes on.

Crown prosecutor Christine Gagnon produced victim impact statements from family members of two of the girls. They describe how the girls suffer from fear and depression, get angry easily, act violently towards siblings, and stay home from school when the court party comes to town.

Issigaitok’s plea spared the girls from having to testify at a trial, but came after many had already appeared at a preliminary inquiry.

The assaults were just the latest in the saga that began in 1988, when the first of a series of sexual assault allegations involving young girls came to light. These resulted in 10 convictions between 1988 and 1997, the last of which put Issigaitok away for three years.

“Basically we have an individual who’s not stopping,” Gagnon told the court. “There’s very little respite between offenses.”

Gagnon suggested a sentence of seven years — one year for each offense, plus one concurrent year for an assault that involved only touching on the leg. To provide context for the heavy sentence, Gagnon introduced a history of sentences from previous sexual offenders, including Ed Horne.

Johnson considered Issigaitok’s criminal record on May 26, when he handed down the sentence, minus time already served.

Issigaitok spent 27 months at the Baffin Correctional Centre waiting for his trial. When that is counted as double time (the usual practice, which takes into account overcrowded conditions at BCC as well as the uncertainty of remand) Issigaitok will only serve two more years, in a federal prison.

The heavy sentence raises just one difficulty for the court — when an offender is sentenced to federal time, a Nunavut judge can no longer impose conditions on the offender when he is released that would, for example, keep him from contacting the victims or spending time alone with young girls.

That’s a concern in this case, because all parties, including a corrections psychologist who examined Issigaitok, agree there is a high risk that he will strike again.

“To release him into the community without further programming would create an unacceptable risk to the young females who live there,” said Justice Johnson at the sentencing.

It’s up to the national parole board to prepare information on Issigaitok when he is released back to the community, and to share that information with local RCMP.

The police, or any other concerned citizen, may then apply for an “810 order.” If successful, that Criminal Code provision allows a territorial judge to set conditions where there is a strong fear an offender will cause harm to more victims.

Issigaitok, a short man with curly graying hair, a moustache, dark glasses, and a built-in frown that folds over a prominent chin, was alert and attentive during the sentencing.

While in remand, Issigaitok refused counseling or treatment, but when the judge gave him a chance to speak to the court, he indicated a change of heart.

“What I did was a big mistake to the people that I impacted,” he said, removing his glasses to wipe tears from his eyes. “I do pray for help.”

He pleaded to be allowed to return home to care for his aging parents: a mother who has just one thumb, and his father, who has a bad knee.

“That does give me hope,” said the judge, acknowledging Issigaitok’s regret. “Pedophilia is a sickness… It’s very important that you face fully the fact that you have this sickness.”

If Issigaitok does not get treatment, and offends again, the next step, the judge said, could be a dangerous sex offender application.

“You can be sent to jail and kept there for the rest of your life,” the judge said.

Judge Johnson also imposed a DNA order, and 20 years on the sex offender registry, as well as a 15-year weapons ban, with an exception for hunting.