Winnipeg man found guilty of sexual assault against stepdaughter

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This article was published 16/04/2015 (3296 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has been convicted of repeated sexual assaults against his young stepdaughter.

The accused, who can’t be named to protect the identity of the now 16-year-old victim, learned his fate Friday following a trial earlier this year.

Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond rejected the man’s plea of innocence and claims the young girl was lying.

“She was intelligent and articulate and I accept her evidence. She did not waver,” Bond said, finding him guilty of sexual assault and sexual interference. He will be sentenced on July 13 and remains free on bail with conditions including having no contact with the victim or any children under the age of 16.

Crown attorney Adam Bergen expressed some concern on Friday the man may now attempt to flee, considering he will be requesting a jail sentence. Court records show the man has a documented history with the justice system including a bankruptcy and several lawsuits that have been filed against him for property deals. He has also done business across the country.

As a result, an additional curfew was added to his bail following Friday’s verdict.

The girl testified earlier this year how she was attacked shortly after her mother began dating the man and they moved in together in late 2009. She said the incidents started with longer-than-normal good-night kisses before escalating. She said he began kissing her with his tongue and fondling her as she lay in bed. She said her stepfather would enter her second-floor bedroom and close the door while her mother was upstairs in a third-floor bedroom.

“She was home every time,” the girl told court. When asked why she didn’t report the assaults at the time, she said “I was really young.”

“I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know how to talk about it. I didn’t know what to do,” she testified.

The teen said the assaults ended when her mother left the relationship and the two of them moved elsewhere. She eventually told her mother in 2012 when she began experiencing severe emotional distress which included cutting herself with a razor blade, court was told.

Defence lawyer Richard Wolson had argued the girl was “impressionable and vulnerable to manipulation” and may have made up the story because it’s what her mother wanted to hear. Bond said Friday that was not the case.

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