Victim of multiple sexual assaults recounts harrowing tale at sentencing

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on October 22, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

Taylor (not her real name) was a typical teenager. She faced the same challenges other girls her age faced, but she was also an honours student with a bright future. Then, a little more than a year ago, when she was only 15 years old, her world came crashing down.
Today the Lethbridge girl is but a shadow of her former self. No longer an honours student, her grades plummeted and she was barely passing her classes. She has PTSD, anxiety and depression, and her health has deteriorated. Her family fell apart, the association with friends changed, and no one at school would talk to her, including administrators.
“I felt like a ghost, looked like a ghost,” she says.
The young girl was the victim of multiple sexual assaults in the summer of 2021, and Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court a Lethbridge man, who cannot be identified because he was only 17 years old at the time, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and was sentenced to six months of deferred custody and supervision, followed by probation. Deferred custody allows the offender to serve a custodial sentence in the community under strict conditions.
“Women and girls, or women and children, are overwhelmingly the victims of sexual violence in our country and in our culture,” Judge Erin Olsen said before sentencing the 18-year-old offender.
“It’s extremely distressing to see and hear from a teenager like (the victim) about how much she has suffered because of this offence. What I have heard and read in her victim impact statement was almost complete devastation; medical, psychological, and educational as a result of being a victim of sexual violence.”
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown Prosecutor Mykel Long said the victim, who turns 17 next month, first met the offender at Henderson Lake Park in Lethbridge. At about 9 p.m. on July 1 of last year, the offender went to a westside home to smoke marijuana. The girl was also at the house, and the offender got her Snapchat information.
On a subsequent occasion the offender and the young girl were part of a group of people that had gathered at Henderson Lake Park, during which time the offender took the girl to a vehicle where they had sex in the back seat.
“(The victim) told the accused, ‘no I can’t’ and ‘please stop,'” Long said, adding, “the accused did not stop, insisting he would be quick.”
On Aug. 5 the offender and a friend picked up the girl and took her to the westside residence and led her to a bedroom where both the young offender and his friend sexually assaulted her. After the older man left the room, the offender assaulted his victim again.
“(She) was in pain and asked him to stop several times, however the accused did not stop,” Long said. “(She) gave up at that point and did not put up a fight and just laid there.”
When it was over, about 20 minutes later, the offender and his friend drove her home.
In her victim impact statement read in court by the Crown, the girl said she eventually stopped eating and began taking drugs to help her cope with the aftermath of the assaults.
“I seem to have no other coping mechanisms than injecting and inhaling terrible things that I am now seeing the consequences of,” she wrote. “I can’t handle physical touch. I couldn’t even look at my boyfriends and men in general. This has left me feeling as though I shouldn’t get too close to someone until I am fixed.”
The girl said she was hospitalized twice for overdosing on pills, and the second time her boyfriend and his father found her having a seizure on the floor of her bedroom.
“My mom had to go on disability to stay at home to make sure I don’t kill myself. My mom can’t do her job because of the stress this has put on her.”
In her mother’s victim impact statement, the mother said the offender’s actions not only harmed her daughter, but her family, as well.
“This horrific crime perpetrated against my daughter has devastated our entire family,” she wrote. “I’m not normally an anxious person, but this has created high anxiety most of the time.”
She said she no longer sleeps well, and has difficulty focusing and remembering things. She also feels she failed as a mother because she was unable to protect her daughter.
“My heart is broken for her and I feel so helpless. I just want to somehow make it all go away. In my wildest dreams I could never imagine anything having a profound effect as this has had on all of us. She’s trying so hard, yet I cannot fathom how she’ll be able to pick up the pieces, move forward and continue with her life. She’s an amazing girl with her whole life ahead of her, and the ability to achieve whatever she sets her mind to. I pray that she is able to get the justice she deserves.”
Calgary lawyer Rabie Ahmed reminded the court that even though his client is now an adult, he was a youth at the time of his offences and did not have a criminal record. He emigrated from Syria with his family in 2018 and settled in the Lethbridge area.
“(The offender) understands that what he did was extremely harmful,” Ahmed said. “He understands that it was extremely inappropriate, and that as a result of his behaviour the complainant will suffer for a very, very long time and possibly for the rest of her life.”
Ahmed said his client is extremely remorseful and accepts responsibility for his actions, and intends to close this chapter of his life, move on and learn from his “youthful offending” and ensure he does “not come before this court again.”
In addition to the six-month deferred custody and supervision order, Judge Olsen said the offender will be on probation for 18 months following the completion of his sentence. During his probation period he must obey several conditions, which include residing at an approved residence, being assessed and taking counselling for life skills and psychological issues as directed, and informing his probation officer if he becomes involved in a “domestic” relationship. He is prohibited from consuming alcohol and drugs and he must avoid any contact with the victim, as well as several men who were also charged last year in connection to human trafficking.
“It is really up to you whether you learn from what you’ve done, and take the chance to learn more about how to prevent this from ever happening again,” Olsen said.
The offender had originally faced several sex-related offences, including trafficking persons under the age of 18, but they were withdrawn by the Crown.
The charges stem from a police investigation in which 10 individuals were arrested in August 2021. Police alleged that eight men and two youth from Lethbridge and Calgary selected and groomed a 15-year-old girl and took her to specific locations where sex offences occurred. Some of the individuals had also engaged in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl, and three additional complainants came forward later in connection with the investigation.
While the matters for the adults are still before the court, the other youth resolved his charges in March when he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault against two girls, and was also handed deferred custody and supervision.

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