A Rocky Mountain House area man faces a lengthy jail term after pleading guilty on Thursday to abducting and sexually assaulting a young girl.
Louis Joseph Tyrone Sunchild, 28, of the Sunchild First Nation Reserve, pleaded guilty to abduction, sexual contact with a child, breaking into a home and breaching probation when he appeared in Rocky provincial court.
The Crown is after a 20-year prison term while the defence argued for a term of 10 to 12 years.
Sunchild returns to court Sept. 28 for sentencing.
Court heard the abduction on the reserve of the five-year-old girl occurred around midnight on Aug. 14, 2010, while she was sleeping.
The girl went missing after a youth who was babysitting her stepped out briefly.
An intensive search was launched by area RCMP but the girl could not be found at first.
She was finally discovered by a local resident about 3:30 p.m. the next day about 100 metres from her home.
Police said at the time that the girl was examined by medical authorities and she did not appear to have suffered serious physical injury.
Sunchild was arrested without incident on the Morley Reserve near Cochrane in early December.