Court Information

Ontario Court of Justice

Her Majesty the Queen v. Danny Sakakeep

Proceedings at Sentencing

Before the Honourable Justice P.T. Bishop

Date: July 16, 2013 Location: Sioux Lookout, Ontario

Appearances

Crown: M. Mousseau Defence: D. Gunn (Counsel for Danny Sakakeep)

Facts

Crown's Submission

On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 26, 2012, J.M., D.M., and M.M. were playing in the vicinity of an abandoned trailer in the area commonly referred to as the old trailer park of Big Trout Lake, Ontario. This was an area that was fairly close to where they lived.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., Danny Sakakeep contacted Tracy Sainnawap. They had broken up the previous day, and he contacted her about the status of their relationship. She advised him the relationship was over and that she had their two children—an infant and a toddler—who would be living with her mother. Danny Sakakeep indicated that the news was very upsetting to him; he felt lost, depressed, and angry.

He went to the trailer of Jerry Duncan within the old trailer park area and began consuming homebrew with a group of community members. He then returned to his trailer and went to sleep. When he awoke, he was again feeling thoughts of depression and rage. Throughout his statement to the police, he indicated how very angry he was. He had thoughts of suicide and considered ending his life.

He attended the outside of his trailer to have a cigarette. The four M. children were playing nearby, and he approached them. The four children did not know this man, who was Danny Sakakeep. Danny Sakakeep told them to go to his trailer, which was a short distance away, and the group of children followed his direction and went with him to the trailer. He was seen by many community members walking towards the children.

D.M. was told to go into the bathroom; he complied, and Danny Sakakeep locked the door to the bathroom. So the one little boy was locked in the bathroom. Danny Sakakeep then told M.M. and R.M.—the eight and six-year-old girls—to go into his bedroom. J.M., the five-year-old girl, remained in the living room and was watching television.

M.M. and R.M. entered the bedroom as directed by Danny Sakakeep. M.M. indicated the room was dark and she was scared. Sakakeep followed M.M. into the bedroom, closed the door, and proceeded to undress himself and then undress M.M. M.M. stated that he was looking at pictures of girls in magazines that he kept in a green box.

With D.M. present in the room, Danny Sakakeep pushed M.M. on the bed and proceeded to penetrate her anus with his finger. He then mounted her and penetrated her vagina with his penis. She said that the man's penis was too big and it hurt her. She began crying, and Danny Sakakeep punched her several times in the face. At one point, Danny Sakakeep told M.M. that he was going to kill someone if she told, and she believed he was going to kill her brother, D.M., who was locked in the bathroom.

M.M. cried out for help, and Danny Sakakeep put his hand over her nose and mouth, and she had trouble breathing. M.M. indicated that she would not and could not leave the residence because Danny Sakakeep would not let her go.

Danny Sakakeep then punched R.M. in the face, causing her nose and mouth to bleed. R.M. noticed that Danny Sakakeep did not have any clothes on and that M.M. seemed to be missing several articles of her clothing. Danny Sakakeep instructed R.M. to remove her clothing. She was taking too long; he became impatient and began to pull off her pants and underwear in one motion. Danny Sakakeep then had R.M. sit on his lap and penetrated her vagina with his penis. R.M. indicated that she began to cry and that his actions hurt her.

During this time, J.M. heard her sisters crying; she believed the man was bothering her sisters and she went to the bathroom, unlocked the door, and released her brother. J.M. indicated that she and her brother snuck away and ran home.

At approximately 7:30 p.m., J.M. and D.M. arrived home. They appeared frightened and told their parents, L.A. and R.M., that the man had taken M.M. into the trailer and closed the door. Unsure of the severity of the circumstances, R.M. and L.A. drove J.M. and D.M. to the old trailer park, which was a short distance from their house and the area where their children were last seen.

R.M. checked several trailers but did not locate R.M. or M.M. After some hesitation, J.M. advised L.A. which trailer the man had taken them to, identifying it by a wooden box outside the door. L.A. knocked on the door and windows of Danny Sakakeep's trailer. No one answered, but you could hear movement inside the door; she could hear the television. She continued to knock and also indicated that she could tell someone had looked out of the peephole in that door because it was clear and then it was dark.

Eventually, she observed two children inside the trailer—R.M. and M.M.—through a living room window. She spoke with R.M. and advised him her girls were inside. R.M. recognized the trailer as belonging to Danny Sakakeep.

While L.A. waited outside, R.M. unlocked the front door and observed a male known to him to be Danny Sakakeep wearing underwear and socks escaping from the residence through an open window. One of the socks was purple in color and actually belonged to M.M. R.M. attempted to grab Danny Sakakeep to prevent him from fleeing the trailer, but Danny Sakakeep slid out the open window and got away.

R.M. observed his daughter M.M. inside the trailer pulling up her pants; she did not have a shirt on and complained about having a sore vagina. R.M. called out to L.A. that Danny was escaping out the window. L.A. and R.M. then began to chase Danny Sakakeep, who was running outside attempting to flee the scene.

R.M. and L.A. pursued Danny Sakakeep on foot away from the trailer and caught him a short distance later, knocked him to the ground by R.M. kicking him in the chest. Both L.A. and R.M. kicked Danny Sakakeep several times while he was on the ground. L.A. had to physically restrain R.M. and pleaded with him to stop kicking Danny Sakakeep and call the police.

R.M. left the scene to contact the police while L.A. remained with Danny Sakakeep. R.M. attended a nearby residence belonging to L.M. and requested to use his phone. They did not have one, so ultimately they went to P.B.'s and used his cell phone. R.M. contacted police advising them that his children had been physically and sexually assaulted by Danny Sakakeep. R.M. was visibly upset and distraught, which attracted several community members' attention.

Ultimately, a number of people located Danny Sakakeep laying on the ground and kept him there until police arrived, while R.M. and L.A. took their children to the Nursing Station. The children did provide videotape statements shortly thereafter, advising what happened.

Medical Evidence

When the children were seen at the Nurse's Station, they did have injuries consistent with being punched in the face as they indicated. M.M. had bruising around her eyes, and R.M. had blood coming out her nostrils. The children were taken for additional medical care and examination at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

The doctors performed a thorough physical examination. With respect to R.M., she did have some genital damage. The external genitalia and anal examination were normal. The hymen was difficult to view due to discomfort and fear, but they noted a bruise at the six o'clock position and increased arrhythmia. Following examination 12 hours later with improved visualization, they indicated that there was bruising of the hymen at the six o'clock area, mild edema extending partially into the labia majora and minora—and this was photographed.

The doctor advised that they would not expect to see this kind of damage through digital penetration alone; it would be penile penetration that would be significant. The findings were positive, indicative of blunt force penetrating trauma consistent with the history provided by the child.

Similarly, M.M. was also seen at the Centre in Thunder Bay. They determined that she also had difficulty with the original examination, but subsequently they were able to examine her genitals. She had a partial thickness laceration with bruises to the base of her labia minora. The nurse originally also witnessed a tear in the vagina that was bleeding fairly heavily when she was brought into the nursing station. Her findings were also consistent with the history provided.

DNA Evidence

DNA samples were taken and submitted to the Centre of Forensic Sciences; three DNA reports came back.

• Blood was found on the wall of Danny Sakakeep's bedroom and blood was also swabbed from his penis. Both the blood on the wall and the blood from his penis belonged to M.M.
• There was blood on his hands, and the swabs taken from them belonged to M.M.
• There was sperm on M.M.'s genitals that belonged to the accused (technically could not be eliminated by something like 481 trillion to one).
• There was blood on M.M.'s panties and semen, saliva, and a hair found in her panties.
• There was also saliva, blood, and hair found in R.M.'s panties, and the blood matched M.M.'s blood.
• The semen found in R.M.'s panties matched semen that was found in a condom, which was found to be coming from Danny Sakakeep.
• A condom was found at the scene with semen located that belonged to Danny Sakakeep.

Accused's Statement

The accused did provide a caution videotape statement to police. It was not fully inculpatory; he indicated that he didn't recall a lot of what happened. Through the course of the statement, he did eventually provide some detail. He certainly didn't deny any of the allegations put to him by the officers regarding what the children had indicated happened. He did indicate throughout that he was in a rage while this was going on and that he wished that someone would come and kill him, but that was somewhat in the face of the fact that he fled out the window when the parents did arrive.

Reasons for Judgment

Bishop, J. (Orally):

Your guilty plea—I remember you wanted to plead guilty right out of bail court without the assistance of counsel, and the court gave several adjournments for you to get counsel and referred it to Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services because I would have appointed you counsel if you did not get one on your own. Fortunately, Mr. Gunn came forward to represent you.

It's important that your views are known and that we have a very complete psychological report from Dr. Somers, and I will deal with that firstly. It appears that you see yourself somewhat as a victim; you may or may not have wanted to—because you are so hurt by Tracy Sainnawap, you wanted to go out and do something so horrendous that people would kill you. Well, that did not happen. The parents, the police, the community of Big Trout Lake came together; you were eventually arrested, and the Rule of Law prevailed, and you are here now to face these charges.

But I note from a very early stage, you wanted to plead guilty and take full responsibility. It does not logically explain why you would abduct or kidnap these children and sexually assault them both digitally and penile to affect that purpose. It just is beyond belief that you would do that because, in fact, you hurt the children. You caused them not only physical harm, but emotional harm. You caused the community emotional harm and hurt.

The Chief and Council were canvassed several times in Big Trout Lake whether this charge should go back to Big Trout Lake for sentencing there; they declined. They were given opportunities on two or three occasions to participate by video, but they declined as well because the hurt is palpable, it's touchable; you can feel it in Big Trout Lake. What you did has really damaged the community, their reputation, and their trust in one of their own Band members.

I have looked at the Gladue consideration. I thank the Crown for putting together this complete book. I have to look at general denunciation and deterrence, and I have to look at you as an Aboriginal offender. Officer Gilfix's pre-sentence report is not as complete as some that he has prepared. You have accepted responsibility, but you declined to give any collateral information because you did not want to hurt your family; you have isolated yourself from your family, and I understand that, but it would have been more helpful to the court.

So I have to look at you as an Aboriginal offender; you have a good work record, you have a relatively minor criminal record, and it is really beyond belief that you would terrorize these young boys and girls the way that you did. It was prolonged, it was difficult for them; it was beyond difficult, it was horrible for them. You know, one is waiting while you are doing your assaults while the other one is watching. One finally escapes and gets some help, and we all know what happened in the end.

So I hope that you will be able to take whatever counselling is available to you. I am quite familiar with Big Trout Lake. I have been going there for 12 years as a lawyer and for almost 20 years as a judge. I am quite in tune with the Gladue considerations. I know about the lack of resources, the lack of counselling, the lack of amenities that many people from Big Trout Lake have, but that does not take away from their morality, that does not take away from the politicality where they exercise their rights under the Treaty, under their autonomous right as a Band to make laws and to regulate their people under Band bylaws in Big Trout Lake. You have breached your commitment as a Band member to that community.

I reviewed all of these cases that have been here. Gladue, of course, talks about general denunciation and deterrence, but it has to be balanced with the Aboriginal aspect of it, and I take that into account. You have been relatively unscathed by that; you had a difficult problem with your father. Father was an authoritarian figure, as principal. You got along well with your mother, and you quit your school just short of grade 12, but you got an equivalent sort of to defy him. It shows an independence on your part, and you have been employed for a relatively good period of time in Big Trout Lake and elsewhere at both the Community Store, working for Tikinagan, and so on. I have read that in the pre-sentence report.

You now are here to face the consequence of this, and I take into account that it is going to be a severe consequence to you, but that is the way we as a community, as a society, punish people who do something so heinous, something so unspeakable to these young children. The parents are so distraught, they cannot even talk about their feelings or write about their feelings. As a parent yourself, you have to reflect back; what if someone had done that to your children? How would you feel as a parent, particularly these very young children who were innocent, minding their own business playing in a trailer? You directed them into your trailer and physically, sexually, and emotionally assaulted them.

In these circumstances, I accept the joint submission.

Sentence

The penalty will be:

• Six years in the Penitentiary for kidnapping/abduction
• Three years consecutive on the sexual assault
• Three years concurrent on the sexual touching (as it all happened at the same time)
• 10 months pre-trial custody credited on the kidnapping charge

Additional Orders:

• Lifetime SOIRA order (Sexual Offenders Information Registry) with strict compliance with a set of rules to prevent any future occurrence like this
• DNA order on the kidnapping charge (sample to be taken by 6:00 p.m. today)
• Lifetime prohibition on owning, possessing, or using any firearm, ammunition, explosive device, or prohibited weapon for the rest of your life

Recommendation:

The court recommends (but cannot order) that the accused serve a portion of his sentence at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon and particularly engage in counselling for sexual deviant behaviour or a sexual offenders program. The accused should make sure that his classification officer knows that he is ready, willing, and able to participate in such programming, as reported in Dr. Somers' report.

The court notes that the accused's explanation defies understanding because it does not fit with his background; it does not fit with what his history has been. It is so out of touch with what a normal responsible human being would do. There may be some underlying sexual deviant behaviour or consideration that should be addressed by some healthcare professionals. The accused will have to talk to his classification officer about where he might go. There may be other programs for sexual offenders that he could sign up for and be assigned to within the Federal Penitentiary system.

Disposition

All remaining charges are withdrawn at the request of the Crown Attorney.

Exhibit

Exhibit Number 5: Casebook – Produced and marked.