Nunavut man sexually abuses stepdaughter as revenge against spouse
A Nunavut man will spend 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to sexually abusing his stepdaughter as an act of revenge against his spouse.
In a decision released earlier this week, Justice Robert Kilpatrick wrote the assault happened after a fight between the 32 year-old man and his common-law spouse of 12 years.
The two were involved in an argument over washing dishes. A shouting match ensued and the spouse accused the man of being sexually active with her 15-year-old daughter.
The man "broods over the false accusation," Kilpatrick wrote in the decision.
"[He] decides to do what he has been accused of doing. This would be his revenge."
The man "quietly slips into the children's bedroom" where the 15-year-old was sleeping along with two other children. He pulled down her underwear and began fondling her vagina. He attempted to penetrate her but she managed to run out of the house.
Following the incident, the couple ended their relationship.
"[He] was completely sober when he committed this offence. He knew that what he was doing was morally reprehensible and legally wrong," Kilpatrick wrote.
The man pleaded guilty to sexual interference and has been ordered to take sex offender programming while in jail.
'A pressing systemic problem'
Kilpatrick wrote that sexual offences have become a "pressing systemic problem" in Nunavut.
"Nunavut leads the country in its per capita rate of sexual offences committed against children. This high incidence of sexual crimes against children – in all of Nunavut's communities – requires a firm response by the territory's sentencing court," Kilpatrick wrote.
The girl was a previous victim of sexual assault and had only moved into the home a year prior.
In her victim impact statement, she said she blames herself for breaking up her family.
In his decision, Kilpatrick urges the Nunavut Department of Child and Family Services "to provide intensive therapeutic counselling" to the victim "to address this issue."
"If qualified therapeutic help is not available in Nunavut, then it should be," he wrote.
