A Manitoba man who turned himself in to police after his partner learned he had been sexually abusing their daughters has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
The man, whose name cannot be published owing to a publication ban, pleaded guilty in provincial court to sexual assault and sexual interference for his years of abuse of his daughter and stepdaughter.
Provincial court Judge Denis Guénette recently sentenced the man, who’s in his mid-40s, to 12 years in prison.
Guénette outlined the man’s sexual abuse — committed from 2013 through the end of 2019 against his daughter and from 2019 through late 2023 against his stepdaughter — in a Nov. 19 written decision.
“The offender persisted with his pattern of grooming leading to reprehensible abuse for more than a decade, and he did so in relation to two vulnerable children for whom he was a parent and therefore in the highest possible position of trust,” wrote Guénette.
The man was long absent from his daughter’s life, but reconnected with her mother after his daughter, then nine, asked about him. The couple had broken up before the mother learned she was pregnant.
The mother had other children, including a daughter, in the intervening years. The abuser soon moved in and began parenting his nine-year-old and his partner’s three-year-old daughter, who became his stepdaughter.
The man began sexually abusing his daughter when she was around 10 or 11 years old. The abuse persisted for six or seven years and he eventually began giving her money for the sex acts.
The daughter told court the abuse stopped when she was 17 years old.
“She says there was a point when she started standing up for herself, to which he reacted by telling her if she co-operated, he would not touch her stepsister,” Guénette wrote.
“The daughter thus continued to suffer the abuse, believing she was protecting her younger sibling.”
But the father “did not keep his twisted promise to his daughter,” said the judge. He began abusing his stepdaughter when she was 10 in 2019.
The girl did not realize all of his behaviour was inappropriate, but as she became more uncomfortable, she told friends, who advised her to tell her mother.
She did so on Dec. 16, 2023, and the mother told the abuser to get out of the house.
Rather than wait for his family to call police, the man went to a police station that same day and confessed, telling officers he sexually abused his daughter. He did not mention the abuse orchestrated against his stepdaughter, the judge noted.
Police investigated and he was formally arrested for abuse against his daughter in February 2024. He was re-arrested in July that year for abuse against his stepdaughter.
The man’s lawyer, Jesse Blackman, argued his client’s decision to go to police and his co-operation with the investigation and prosecution warranted a substantial credit.
Blackman argued the man’s sentence should have been seven years for the abuse against his daughter and three years for the stepdaughter, but his client should have had that cut to five years in credit for his co-operation.
The judge disagreed with the defence and went with Crown prosecutor Cathy Bator’s argument for 12 years.
The man will be ordered to register as a sex offender for 20 years upon his release. For 15 years, he will be barred from attending places where children may be present.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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