REGINA — A Saskatchewan man has been sentenced in Regina Court of King’s Bench to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl.
The accused now 36, was 28 at the time of the offences, which occurred between August 2018 and February 2019. He is identified by the court as N.M. to protect the identity of the child, and a publication ban is in place prohibiting naming him.
He was given seven years for sexual interference, two years consecutive for making child pornography, and one year consecutive for possession child pornography. He received no remand credit because he wasn’t in custody before sentencing.
“The sexual abuse of this child was deliberate and a conscious choice on N.M.’s part to exploit the vulnerability of the victim to satisfy his own lascivious sexual desires,” said Justice Graeme G. Mitchell in his Aug. 7 decision.
“It does not require pronouncements from the highest court in this province or the Supreme Court of Canada to know that such conduct is both depraved and morally repugnant. Any person possessing a functioning moral compass instinctively understands this to be true," added Justice Mitchell.
According to court documents, the girl was often left in the care of N.M. and his partner C.P. On at least six occasions, N.M. woke the girl at night and sexually abused her. He threatened to put soap in her mouth if she didn’t comply. He took 26 photos and four videos of the abuse.
Police later seized his devices, which contained 827 images and 227 videos of child pornography involving multiple victims.
Search warrant and arrest
According to an agreed statement of facts, at 6:49 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2023, a search warrant was executed at the accused’s home, where he was with C.P. and their three children. C.P. answered the door and woke N.M., who was sleeping on the couch.
N.M. was detained by police and, about eight minutes later, asked to use the bathroom. An officer escorted him to the bathroom on the second floor. After he exited it, he told the officers, “OK guys, I did it alright. Just don’t let my family go through this.”
At 7:25 a.m., a digital forensic services specialist performed an on-site analysis of one of N.M.’s mobile phones and found images and videos of child pornography. N.M. was arrested about 45 minutes later for possession of child pornography.
During the search of the accused’s home, an officer from the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit found a cell phone at bottom of the stairs in a basket. Two more cell phones belonging to N.M. were seized from the home.
Through further investigation, Sask. ICE determined one of the children in the images was the seven-year-old girl.
An RCMP sergeant on the Sask. ICE Unit testified that he became involved in the case in March 2023 after Sask. ICE was notified from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States of a video uploaded to SnapChat by a user with an IP address linked to a home in Strasbourg.
The sergeant told the court that two USB drives were prepared from the material retrieved from N.M.’s devices.
Accused's background
N.M. has three children of his own, from which he is now estranged from. He has health issues including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, court documents reveal.
He lacks insight into his offending behaviour and shows no remorse.
Court records show the accused lived in Imperial, Swift Current, Moose Jaw, Strasbourg, Arlington Beach, and Watrous. He lost his job at a tire shop after a Watrous RCMP officer went to his workplace to check on his compliance with release conditions.
Sentencing arguments
Crown prosecutor Nathanial Scipioni asked the court for a 12-year prison sentence.
The Crown said aggravating factors included that the victim was a vulnerable seven-year-old child, that N.M. abused a position of trust, that there were multiple incidents, that N.M. created a permanent record of the abuse with the photos and videos, that he possessed an extensive collection of child pornography, and that there was severe emotional and psychological impact on the victim.
Defence lawyer Nicolas L. Brown argued for seven years.
Mitigating factors included his lack of a prior criminal record, his compliance with release conditions, his guilty plea which spared the victim from testifying, his cooperation with police, he has a low risk of reoffending, and the collateral consequences he has suffered, such as lost family and employment.
The man was ordered to provide his DNA for the National DNA Data Bank and will be on the National Sex Offender Registry for 20 years, and banned from owning firearms for 10 years after his release.
ljoy@sasktoday.ca
