Man sexually assaulted generations of same family over 25 years

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This article was published 17/02/2022 (1360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THEY kept the secret for years, fearing disclosure of the abuse they suffered at the hands of a family friend would tear their families apart.

However, after one young victim came forward to police, more quickly followed, nine in all, including five from two generations of the same family, exposing a 25-year reign of child sexual abuse.

Now justice officials are urging a judge to sentence 48-year-old Alan Oloya Samson to 30 years in prison.

“Nothing less could properly address the gravity of the offences, the harm caused and the accused’s moral culpability,” Crown attorney Katie Dojack told provincial court Judge Cynthia Devine at a recent sentencing hearing.

“His offending spans 25 years. We aren’t dealing with an offender who on one occasion did something horrible.”

Samson has pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual interference, six counts of making child pornography, and one count each of possessing child pornography and theft for offences committed between 1995 and 2020.

“The courage that it took for my children and my family to come forward and reveal the years of trauma they endured is something that heroes are made of,” the mother of two victims told court.

“The pain that each had been carrying for years was suddenly exposed like a Band-Aid that had been ripped off, raw pain oozing as if the hurt had just happened yesterday,” the woman said, reading from a prepared victim impact statement.

The woman and her children now live out of province.

She told court her daughter disclosed to her in July 2020 that Samson had sexually abused her years earlier, when they were living in Winnipeg. The woman said she then spoke to her teenage son, who confirmed he, too, had been sexually abused by Samson.

“That same day I learned my brother and my two cousins came forward to reveal they had also been abused by Allen when they were just kids,” the woman said. “To learn about all of this only within a few hours of each other, I have never felt so inadequate as a mother, never so inadequate as a role model for my family.”

The woman’s daughter said she came forward thinking she and her brother were Samson’s only victims.

“What I was not prepared for was to find out my own family members who I love and care for were one of the very first victims to be involved in this case,” she said.

Court heard Samson “normalized” sex acts with his young victims, grooming them with toys in exchange for their sexual compliance.

One now-adult victim told court he turned to cocaine to escape the waking nightmare of the abuse he suffered.

“Drugs are my escape from my past trauma… and I am a financial wreck because of it,” the man wrote in a victim impact statement provided to court. “I’m a drug addicted sex abuse victim. I’m ashamed of myself to this very day… I feel utterly hopeless.”

Between 1997 and his arrest in September 2020, Samson worked for photography company Lifetouch Canada, processing student photos.

Following Samson’s arrest, police executed a search warrant at his Winnipeg home, uncovering evidence of more victims, pornographic videos of four victims, and approximately 100 photos he stole from Lifetouch.

Court heard Samson used the elementary school photos to masturbate and also as grooming tools, showing them to his young victims and suggesting he was spending time with them in order to make the children jealous.

“The use of other children to try and make these kids jealous of the attention he was providing to somebody else… it’s just so twisted and disturbing,” Dojack said.

Defence lawyer Amado Claros has recommended Devine sentence Samson to 23 years in prison.

Devine reserved her decision. A sentencing date has yet to be set.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca