A decade of sexual abuse of his step daughter landed a man five years in jail after his sentence was handed down in Penticton Provincial Court Monday.
The 38-year-old man, who cannot be named due to a publication ban protecting the identity of the victim, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his step daughter for 10 years, starting when she was just three years old.
The man moved in with the victim’s mother in Penticton and the abuse began as sexual touching and progressed. The incidents occurred “almost weekly” over 10 years, amounting to estimated hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse.
Judge Meg Shaw noted the victim impact statements submitted by the victim and her mother, stating the effects the sexual abuse continues to have on the girl, now 19 years old.
“She has had difficulty coping with day-to-day life,” Shaw said. “She has suffered and continues to suffer emotional and psychological challenges from the way she was treated in her formative years. She continues to suffer from nightmares, she has trouble sleeping.”
The victim tried to get help at the age of eight, but the man denied the abuse and continued his actions, something Shaw found particularly aggravating.
Shaw also outlined the man’s lack of insight into the offence. The man made statements in the pre-sentence report that he “fell in love” with the victim. The man also said he “never forced her” and that the victim “enjoyed it.”
“He also noted that the other child in the household at the time, the victim’s brother, was ‘jealous of our relationship’,” Shaw said. “These statements reflect questionable insight into his actions in sexually abusing a young child numerous times over a decade.”
Shaw said the remorse in the man’s apology to the victim in a previous court appearance was “suspect.”
Shaw also praised the victim for her strength in coming forward, stating she “is to be recognized and admired as a strong, young woman. At the tender age of 13 she was strong enough to tell the offender ‘no more.’”
The man received enhanced credit for time served, leaving 4.5 years left to serve on his sentence.
The man will be registered on the national sex offender registry for 20 years, and he is banned for life from parks, playgrounds or anywhere people under the age of 16 are expected to be present. The man is also banned from being within 100 metres of the victim.