Crown wants jail for man who sexually abused vulnerable young girl he was caring for

Photo: Castanet

Prosecutors want a North Thompson man jailed 18 months for repeatedly sexually assaulting a vulnerable young relative he was supposed to have been raising.

The 38-year-old man cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban put in place to protect the identity of the victim. The community in which the abuse took place cannot be named under the same ban.

The man was convicted following a trial on charges of sexual assault and sexual interference of a person under 16.

Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston said the man took the girl in after she was removed from “an unsafe situation.” The girl was between 11 and 13 when the abuse took place.

Livingston said the abuse was “a regular occurrence” between 2011 and 2013. Court heard the man touched the girl’s genitals and made her touch him.

“It was repetitive, intrusive and invasive on the victim’s bodily and spiritual integrity,” he said. “It also occurred in a place where she lived and where she was entitled to feel safe.”

The man has no previous criminal record.

Livingston is seeking a sentence of 18 months in prison, to be followed by three years of probation.

Defence lawyer Courtney McLaughlin, meanwhile, has suggested a house arrest term of about 20 months, which would also be followed by a three-year period of probation.

Lawyers will return to court on Tuesday to set a date for sentencing. The man is not in custody.