B Daley

Sentencing decision following guilty pleas to numerous internet-based sexual offences against eight child victims, together with possessing and accessing child pornography.

The court held that denunciation, deterrence, proportionality, and the totality principle required a significant penitentiary sentence, emphasizing the degrading, coercive, and dehumanizing nature of the offending and the profound psychological harm to the children.

The court accepted forensic psychiatric evidence that the offender likely suffered from paraphilic disorder or disorders and presented above-average, but not high, risk of sexual recidivism, while finding his insight and rehabilitation prospects uncertain.

A fit global sentence was fixed at 12 years, reduced by Summers credit for pre-sentence custody to 9 years 7 months and 20 days, with harsh remand conditions considered as mitigation under the Duncan framework.

The defendant was charged with exceeding 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (exceed 80) for an offence occurring on November 25, 2017.

This was a transitional case, as the offence predated the December 18, 2018 amendments to drinking and driving laws, but the trial occurred after those amendments came into force.

The defence raised two arguments: (1) the Shaikh point, contending that the new legislation failed to provide for the continuing applicability of the presumption of identity in transitional cases, requiring expert toxicologist evidence to link blood alcohol test results to the time of driving; and (2) the Flores-Vigil point, challenging whether the Crown had adequately proven the calibration check requirements under the new presumption of accuracy.

The court rejected both arguments and found the defendant guilty as charged.