Man Gets 6 Years For Sex With Dependent

A man has been found guilty of sexual intercourse with a dependent and indecent assault and will serve a combined concurrent sentence of six years after a jury rejected his claims that the teenage complainant had willingly initiated their encounters.

The convicted man, then 56, was living with his wife and two sons when his wife’s teenage niece came to stay in their home after a period of instability elsewhere. The complainant was 16 at the time of the offenses.

She shared a bedroom with one of the couple’s sons and testified that she had initially trusted the accused as a paternal figure — until he began entering her room late at night, while his son slept, and touching her inappropriately.

The Crown argued that in November 2018, the accused used the pretext of a farm errand to get the complainant alone. Once isolated in a secluded, bushy area, he touched her inappropriately and, after threatening to drive them both off a cliff if she resisted, forced himself on her and engaged in sexual intercourse.

The accused presented a starkly different account. He testified that the complainant had initiated contact by asking him to drive her to see her boyfriend, and that she later offered to perform oral sex on him in exchange for a second favor. He claimed she subsequently invited him to her room after midnight and that all contact was consensual. He further denied being able to complete intercourse, stating he could not achieve an erection at the farm — a claim his wife appeared to support when she testified that he suffers from erectile dysfunction.

The defence also argued that the charges were orchestrated by the complainant’s stepfather to gain leverage in a custody dispute involving his former wife, and suggested the complainant had fabricated the allegations after being promised a trip and a phone as incentives for her cooperation. The stepfather denied both claims.

After considering the evidence, last year, the jury rejected the rape charge but returned guilty verdicts on the alternative charge of sexual intercourse with a dependent, carrying a six-year sentence, and indecent assault, carrying one year. The sentences are to run concurrently.