Red Deer’s chief Crown prosecutor wants a pedophile, whose victims included the man’s adopted daughter, be supervised for 10 years following his sentence.
Anders Quist made his case in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Wednesday during the last day of a two-day hearing to determine if a 52-year-old man should be declared a long-term offender.
A long-term offender receives a jail sentence and two to 10 years of court-ordered supervision.
“It’s almost too bad 10 is all we can get,” Quist said on Wednesday.
Breaching supervisory conditions for a long-term offender would constitute a separate offence and a separate sentence compared to breaching regular parole, which sends an offender back to jail to serve the rest of his existing sentence.
According to a psychiatrist’s report, the man began his predatory and opportunistic sexual offences against children when he was in his teens, starting with an elementary school girl in a park, and offences continued until 2005.
In April, the former Red Deer man, who can’t be named to protect the identities of his victims, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four girls.
His offences occurred in communities south of Red Deer between 1995 and 2005. The ages of the victims ranged from five to about 13 and also included nieces and another girl.
The most “horrific acts” were committed against his youngest victim — his adopted daughter.
In a victim impact statement read aloud by Justice Andrea Moen, his daughter said she still has trouble trusting people and is especially uncomfortable around older men.
“Sometimes I worry it could happen again, at anytime, anywhere,” Moen read to the court.
He groped the breasts of another victim while she bounced on a trampoline and touched another victim’s genital area while she sat on his lap when her family visited his home.
The man been in custody since April 2008 when the case started to work its way through the courts.
Soon after police first interviewed him in 2005, he started treatment for his deviant behaviour and has been using a chemical sexual suppressant he says helps.
Defence lawyer Patty MacNaughton said her client was so ashamed of his behaviour he considered suicide.
“That is the ultimate remorse. He could not live with himself and he was feeling very shameful,” said MacNaughton who argued for a five-year supervision order.
She said her client was also abused when he was young and mitigating factors for sentencing include his co-operation in the police investigation, his desire for treatment, and his willingness to take medication.
“He has a great desire to stop. He has always sought help and was unable to get the appropriate amount of help.”
Quist recommended the man receive a global sentence of four years and nine months, which could be reduced to two years and one month given his guilty pleas, the confession he initiated, and his time spent in custody.
MacNaughton argued for a 12-month sentence saying he deserved more credit for time served and the information he provided on the crimes his young victims could not remember.
MacNaughton agreed with Quist’s request that her client be on Canada’s sex offender registry for 20 years. But she opposed a life-time ban on him being allowed to visit places like parks where children under 16 could be, working or volunteering with children, or communicating with them via the computer.
Moen will render her sentence and long-term offender decision on Oct. 2.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com