Stepfather convicted in decades-old sex assault after victim — now an inmate — testifies

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This article was published 04/03/2025 (389 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge has found a 65-year-old man guilty of sexually assaulting his stepson more than two decades ago, in a case that hinged on the credibility of the victim — who testified clad in shackles.

Provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson, reading from a lengthy written decision last week, issued convictions on one count each of sexual assault and sexual interference, committed on numerous occasions between Jan. 1, 1999, and Dec. 31, 2003, when the victim was in his early teens.

The abuse began, court heard, when the man came into the victim’s room to comfort him after he gave away his pet dog, which led to a sexual assault on the boy’s bed, roughly in the fall of 1999.

The victim reported the incidents to the RCMP in Stonewall, where his mother and stepfather resided at the time of the abuse, in April 2023.

The judge found the man guilty after hearing testimony from the victim in January, who was brought to court by provincial sheriff officers from Milner Ridge jail.

Court heard the abuse included fondling, masturbation, oral and penetrative sex.

Eyrikson said he found the “emotional and compelling” testimony striking — and did not doubt the victim’s credibility or reliability, despite having to consider it cautiously due to his criminal record.

“This individual appeared as a complete open book and did not appear to be hiding anything at any point,” said Eyrikson.

Crown prosecutor Thomas Boult had argued the victim had no motive to lie.

The man’s defence lawyer, Chris Gamby, did not call evidence and instead argued the victim’s allegations should not have been believed.

Gamby noted the victim’s young daughter lived with his mother and the convicted man for an extended period of time, arguing it made no sense for him to allow his child to reside with someone he believed to be a pedophile.

The lawyer accepted that when recounting historical offences, all details do not need to be precise, but noted the timing of the events changed between the victim’s statement to police and his testimony.

The defence also pointed to a potential motive for the victim to lie, Eyrikson said.

“Namely, so his mother would be in a better position to obtain a house which she appears to own with the accused,” said Eyrikson.

The victim has lived a life of crime — largely property offences, including thefts, as well as court order breaches — and long struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.

Eyrikson noted the victim has no breach-of-trust-related convictions, such as for fraud, on his record.

He did admit to other offences on the stand for which he hasn’t been charged, including assaulting his stepfather in recent years and threatening to kill him if he harmed his daughter. He also admitted to an arson committed as teen, he said, at the behest of his stepfather.

The man told court he began using drugs and alcohol when his stepfather introduced him to booze and cocaine, while he took him on long-haul trucking trips across Canada as a youth. He was repeatedly abused on those trips, he told court.

He developed a dependency on the substances to cope throughout his adult life and only recently got sober and begun to address his trauma.

The convicted man is currently out on court-ordered release in Ontario, where he’s accused of uttering threats, an obstruction-of-justice-related offence and firearms charges for crimes allegedly committed there last year.

A man who resides near Belleville, Ont., with whom the convicted man was staying last fall while on bail from his Manitoba charges, has accused him of asking him to kill his stepson, after claiming the victim was the complainant in a “bogus” drug case.

The Ontario man then learned of the sex assault allegations in a news article and confronted the now-convicted man, Ontario Provincial Police said. He then allegedly threatened the Ontario man’s life as well.

Eyrikson granted a motion from Boult to have the man’s bail on the Manitoba charges revoked ahead of his sentencing in light of the allegations in Ontario, and issue an arrest warrant to compel him to turn himself in.

Boult is expected to seek a federal prison term for the man at his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca