Court boosts sentence for man who traded rum for sex with teen

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This article was published 09/12/2021 (1410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s highest court has struck down a 15-month jail sentence for a man who traded a 60-ounce bottle of rum for sex with a vulnerable Indigenous girl and replaced it with one of five years in prison.

Scott Christopher Alcorn, 46, was convicted last year of one count of obtaining sexual services for consideration from a person under 18.

His victim, who was 16 at the time of the 2015 offence and identified in court documents as D.R., committed suicide in 2016, before Alcorn went to trial.

“In order to better legally protect children, it is necessary to turn a new page from the past and embark on a fresh sentencing approach which focuses on greater offender accountability through increased sentences,” said Court of Appeal Justice Christopher Mainella in a written decision released Thursday.

Court records described D.R. as a high-risk youth with multiple mental health and addiction issues who traded sex to survive. Alcorn and the girl met over social media, and Alcorn agreed to give the girl a bottle of liquor in exchange for sex.

The two had sex at the home of Kevin Rose, a pimp and child pornographer who, two years later, was sentenced to 21 years in prison for sexually exploiting D.R. and five other girls. A secret recording Rose made of Alcorn having sex with D.R. was found by police.

The Court of Appeal ruled Alcorn’s original sentencing judge erred by not treating his offence with the same gravity as other sexual offences against children. Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche also erred in ruling his moral culpability was reduced because his actions “appear(ed) opportunistic, rather than predatory.”

Alcorn’s actions were “exploitative, dehumanizing and rooted in a power imbalance,” Mainella said.

The judge said it would undermine public confidence in the administration of justice if there was the perception sex crimes against children are less serious when it involves an offender who “bought” sex as opposed to one who “took” it.

“This ignores the inherent sexual exploitative reality of the child sex industry, it’s racialized and female nature, as well as respect for the personhood of the victim,” Mainella said.

“Any reasonable adult would know that perpetuating D.R.’s cycle of destruction was harmful to her best interests,” he said. “While the accused played no role in bringing D.R. into the child sex industry, his deliberate, selfish actions helped keep her there.”

Alcorn received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to just over 3 ½ years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca