WESTLOCK – A then-17-year-old Westlock-area boy who had sex with a then-12-year-old girl multiple times over a week, now faces probation, community service hours and will submit a sample of his DNA to authorities.
In Westlock Provincial Court Jan. 4, Judge Joanne Heudes sentenced the now 18-year-old to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service but rejected a request from defence lawyer David Keyes to grant a conditional discharge to his client and lower the community services hours to 80. The youth, who Crown prosecutor Brett Grierson said was previously found guilty by Judge Heudes of sexual interference and sexual assault, will also receive assessment, treatment and counselling as part of a long list of probation conditions, submit a sample of his DNA to the RCMP and has been barred from contacting the victim, or her mother, or from attending their home, school or places of work. Publication bans bar any reporting that could identify the boy or the victim, while only scant details of the offence were read into the record during the sentencing hearing which had initially been slated for Nov. 23, 2022 — St. Albert Provincial Court refused to release a redacted youth criminal docket for Jan. 4, while court checks previously refused to confirm the charges against the teen citing provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
“I have a very young man in front of me and he’s had a number of hardships himself coming to this point in his life and I acknowledge those and that you’re taking steps. And I hear the pain on the other side, as I’m a mother as well. It’s the event that happens that you can’t take back and that’s hard to deal with,” said Judge Heudes, who called the two-year sentence “acceptable and appropriate.”
“I take the fact that you feel ashamed and humiliated, and this has affected you in this community. I don’t know if you fully appreciate your role in all of this, but I do hear you accepting the consequences of it and that your behaviour has to change because of it. I wish all of you the best as you find your way forward.”
Court heard that there were three sexual encounters over a week between the then 17-year-old boy and the then-12-year-old girl and there was “de facto consent” although Grierson noted “the accused either subjectively knew about her age and proceeded anyways or ought to have known and was willfully blind.”
Grierson noted the pre-sentence report on the teen didn’t indicate “a clear indication of remorse or acceptance of responsibility” but noted the boy, whose been diagnosed with ADHD and suffered brain damage at birth, “might have difficulty with emotional processing.” Although this was the teen’s first criminal conviction, Grierson noted he has since been convicted of an identical offence.
Keyes, noting the boy’s mother and sister were in court to support him, said the focus of the sentencing “should be to rehabilitate, not to punish”, said his client is working to become “safer” and a “better asset to the community.” Keyes also disputed claims his client, who has a Grade 10 education, continues to blame the victim as he has expressed remorse and is “ashamed and humiliated by his actions.”
“He does have some real cognitive issues, there are some deep-rooted malfunctions with this individual’s brain. He’s not playing with a full deck honestly and there is some bad wiring that seems to be physiological,” said Keyes, noting the teen himself claims to be a victim of sexual assault, although that case did go to trial in 2020 and the accused was acquitted.
“I have burned the clothes he raped me in”
Victim impact statements from the girl and her mother were read into the record by Grierson.
The girl wrote that her mental health and coping abilities have been “significantly affected” and she cannot sit through a class without feeling “overwhelmed” and “extreme anxiety.”
“I am fearful of (name redacted). I am afraid of (name redacted) and that he will attempt to contact me. My fear stems from the thought of him attempting to violate or hurt me again. I have seen him the community and felt the need to hide myself to feel safe,” reads the statement in part. “I have burned the clothes he raped me in and I feel disgusting when I wear the clothes I was violated in to the point I feel physically ill.”
The girl’s mother wrote that, “ … how does a mother put into words how deeply and terribly something like this affects her child?” and says she now has trouble sleeping and “the memories and the trauma from this will never truly go away for any of us” and she feels it has “broken part of me that I will never be able to repair.”
“For myself I have trouble finetuning how to express the impact that this has had on me. How do I put into words the dread I feel when she is not near me … when I can’t see that she is safe,” the statement reads in part. “How does a mother explain the soul-rotting guilt she feels for not keeping her child safe? I’m supposed to be able to teach her that we can move past this and trust again, but I don’t know if I can.”
