5-year sentence for N.L. man who sexually assaulted girls
A man with a long history of sexually assaulting girls in Newfoundland and Labrador has been sentenced to five years in prison.
The sentence for Reg O'Keefe, 70, was handed down at Supreme Court in St. John's Friday morning.
O'Keefe was sentenced on six charges for what he did to four girls who are now women.
The incidents date back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
After the sentence was read, the mother of a young child who O'Keefe admitted to assaulting in a separate case said she hopes his long prison sentence means "he's not going to hurt anyone else after today."
In 2012, O'Keefe pleaded guilty and was convicted of sexually assaulting the woman's three-year-old daughter.
He was sentenced to one year in jail.
Mother of victim
The woman, who can't be identified in order to protect the identity of her daughter, was in court to hear the sentence for his latest convictions.
She's been keeping close contact with O'Keefe's other victims by phone.
"They are overwhelmed. We were all hoping for two years plus a day," she said. "We wanted him to be shipped off to a federal penitentiary, that was our goal."
"The Crown asked for six to eight years … but the fact that he got five years, we were not expecting it."
She believes her daughter will thrive despite what happened to her.
"She is going to grow up and be as amazing a young woman as she is a little girl. She's a very strong girl. She's very brave and optimistic."
"She will fall down. I have no doubt that — what happened to her will cause her to fall down — but I'll be there to pick her up."
The mother said what happened to her daughter has had a profound affect on her too.
"This has haunted me for a long time and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I have no doubt about that," she said.
"When someone does what he did to my daughter, you don't get over that. You carry that forever. But I'm not going to let it define me. We will move on and we will be strong."
O'Keefe was stone-faced as he left court.
At one point, he lifted one arm to wave to someone he knew.
He wasn't handcuffed. He needed both hands to use his walker.
