Crown asks for eight years in ‘horrific’ child sex abuse case

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This article was published 25/02/2021 (2053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge has been urged to sentence a Winnipeg woman to eight years in prison in a case that has changed the way courts are to deal with offenders guilty of sex crimes against children.

The woman — who is to be sentenced Friday — previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference involving her then-one-year-old son and four-year-old daughter, crimes committed at the behest of a man she had just met on a dating website.

That man, Justyn Friesen, was sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison.

His sentence was reduced on appeal to 4 1/2 years, but restored by the Supreme Court of Canada, who, in reasons released last year, said sentences for child sex offenders should increase as society’s understanding of the great harm inflicted on children deepens.

“Courts are justified in departing from dated precedents that do not reflect society’s current awareness of the impact of sexual violence on children in imposing a fit sentence,” the court said.

The then-31-year-old woman connected with Friesen on a dating website June 29, 2016, and quickly arranged to meet at her home for sex, Crown attorney Mike Himmelman told court at a sentencing hearing last week.

After Friesen left, the woman — who court heard is cognitively challenged, with an IQ of 65 — noticed her laptop was missing and immediately called him. Friesen denied taking the computer, but offered to help get it back if she agreed to “kinky stuff.”

When the woman invited Friesen back to her home two days later, she agreed to his request she perform a sex act on her toddler son.

Two weeks later, the woman and Friesen were having sex while a friend babysat her children in another part of the home. Friesen told the woman to bring her daughter to the bedroom so he could sexually abuse her.

The girl’s screams, captured on a recording on the woman’s cellphone, awakened her friend, who interrupted the assault and ordered Friesen out of the house.

The woman can be heard on the recording apologizing to Friesen as her friend yells at him and threatens to call police.

“Her initial thoughts were not for the welfare of the child,” Himmelman said. “There is no sense she was intimidated or scared of Mr. Friesen, but in fact wanted to please him.”

According to a pre-sentence report prepared for court, the woman has shown “little insight into her role in this horrific set of crimes,” Himmelman said.

“Instead, she seems intent on painting a picture of herself as a victim.”

The Supreme Court’s decision signals a “significant shift” in how offenders who victimize children should be sentenced, Himmelman said.

“The focus, in our reading of (the decision) should be on the harm caused to the children, not on the offender,” he said. “For this offence and this offender, a significant custodial term is the only appropriate sentence.”

Defence lawyer Ed Murphy urged Justice Doug Abra to sentence the woman to no more than three years in prison, arguing her reduced cognitive abilities left her vulnerable.

Murphy said the woman only went along with the abuse of her daughter after Friesen threatened to blackmail her with a cellphone recording of the previous assault on her son. Court heard Friesen pleaded guilty to extortion for doing just that.

The woman found an unexpected defender in Liberal MLA Jon Gerrard, who provided a letter of support alleging the woman was “forced and manipulated into the acts she was accused of,” and urging the court to sentence her to no more time in jail.

Reached by phone Thursday, Gerrard said he first met the woman when she approached him for help on an unrelated issue in 2015. He said he wrote the letter at a time when the woman was between lawyers and exploring the option of withdrawing her guilty pleas.

“Go back 70 years, and someone with an IQ like this might be in an institution for life,” he said. “I see her as being the victim. She should be supported… How do we as a society protect someone who has low intelligence, who doesn’t appreciate the implications of their actions? I think it’s an issue we as a society have to face.”

The woman told court last week she looks forward to a day she can see her children again.

“In the past, I have let people use me and take advantage of me,” she said. “I wish I was stronger and able to protect myself and my children from the man who put us in danger… I am a different person now than I was in 2016, when my eyes weren’t opened.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca