Following convictions for repeated historical sexual abuse of three young stepdaughters, the Crown sought a dangerous offender designation and, alternatively, a long-term offender designation.
The court held that although the predicate offences were serious personal injury offences and established repetitive violent and sexual conduct, the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a high likelihood of future harmful recidivism or intractability, and also failed to establish the substantial risk required for long-term offender status.
The court placed significant weight on the age of the offences, the absence of proven sexual offending against children in the many years since, and the limited value of expert opinion insofar as it relied on unproven allegations.
A fit global sentence of 16 years was imposed, with substantial credit for presentence custody resulting in time served plus one day on two counts, together with probation and ancillary protective orders.
