Coutts man sentenced to nine years for having sex with teenage daughter
By Delon Shurtz on May 22, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com
A 42-year old Coutts man who had sex with his 16-year-old daughter more than 50 times between 2016 and 2017, has been sent to a federal penitentiary for nine years.
The man, who can’t be named to protect the identity of his daughter, wiped tears from his eyes as Madam Justice Bernette Ho announced his sentence Friday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench. Then, without a glance at anyone, he was slowly led out of the courtroom to begin his sentence.
Although a jury found the man guilty last year of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and incest, the charge of sexual assault was subsequently stayed by the Crown.
During his trial in 2020, the victim – who didn’t know her biological father but travelled from B.C. to Alberta in July 2016 to meet him – testified she had been living with her father and his family for only about three weeks when he offered to give her a back massage after she complained of back pain. During the massage he removed her pants and touched her vagina.
The jury heard how the father and daughter engaged in sexual activities more than 50 times while they lived in the man’s residence, which at first was a trailer until the family moved to a home shortly afterward. Even after the girl moved out of the home in May 2017, she and her father continued their liaisons when he picked her up in his vehicle and they parked on dirt roads between Milk River, Coutts and Lethbridge.
“At no time did the victim provide express consent to sexual activity with (her father),” Justice Ho pointed out Friday.
The man, who was married at the time and has four young children, testified during his trial that he never touched his daughter in a sexual nature, and never engaged in any of the sexual activities of which he was accused.
In a victim’s impact statement, the girl’s mother, who the judge referred to only as C.S., said her daughter is embarrassed, ashamed, and scared to let anyone get too close. The mother also expressed her own struggle as she tried to help her daughter.
“C.S. described the personal pain she felt for her daughter, and how much she, as a parent, wished she could take all of the victim’s pain away,” Ho said.
In addition to the nine-year prison term – a sentence jointly recommended by the Crown and defence – the offender must register with the Sex Offender Information Registry for life, and submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank. He is also prohibited from possessing weapons for 10 years, and from contacting the victim during his prison term.
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Where’s the editor?
The way this crime is described minimizes it and demeans the survivor and all other survivors of sexual violence.
They did not “engage” in “liaisons,” nor did they “have sex.” An adult man repeatedly raped a child.
Sexual violence is not sex. A child cannot consent to being raped by an adult.
I’m sure Canada Press Style can give guidance on this. Please apply normal editorial standards to this article. It’s 2021, and we expect accurate language from reputable news organizations.