Sex offender gets community-based sentence

Brayden Paczay, 23, of Chipman, subject to house arrest for first year of sentence, then curfew for second year, for having sex with woman without bothering to get consent

Warning: This story features graphic descriptions of sexual assault.

While referring to his crime as “a major sexual assault,” a judge spared a Chipman man a sentence behind bars Tuesday and instead granted his request for one to be served in the community.

Brayden Paczay, 23, of Red Bank Drive in Chipman, appeared in Fredericton provincial court Tuesday afternoon to hear Judge Lucie Mathurin’s decision on sentence.

The judge found him guilty after trial earlier this year on an indictable charge of sexual assault against a woman whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban..

Courtroom No. 1 in the Justice Building in downtown Fredericton. (Photo: Don MacPherson/The Fredericton Independent)

Evidence at trial showed while he was visiting the woman’s family’s home July 28, 2021, he entered the victim’s bedroom and eventually touched her vagina, penetrating her with his fingers.

He then got on top of her and had non-consensual intercourse with her.

During a sentencing hearing in September, the Crown argued for a prison term of three years for the crime, while the defence recommended a conditional sentence to be served in the community.

Mathurin reserved her decision on sentence to Tuesday, and he ultimately ruled a community-based sentence would be appropriate in Paczay’s case.

“I find he would not endanger the safety of the community,” she said.

The judge said in the circumstances, a conditional sentence with stringent limits on the offender’s freedom would still meet the goals of sentencing, including denunciation of his crime and deterrence.

“Mr. Paczay will not be able to live a free and normal life for two years less a day,” Mathurin said.

“It is a jail sentence but you’re going to serve it at home.”

Among the conditions of his sentence are house arrest for the first year of the two-year term, during which he can only leave his home for work, medical and dental appointments, treatment and counselling sessions and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. for personal business.

He’s also allowed out of his home to perform 100 hours of community-service work, another condition of the sentence.

For the second year, Paczay will be subject to a nightly curfew.

Throughout the two-year term, he’s to have no contact with the victim, abstain from alcohol and other intoxicants, and present himself at the door of his home for compliance checks by police or his sentence supervisor.

Mathurin also imposed orders requiring him to submit a DNA sample for a criminal database and to register annually as a sex offender for 20 years, and she prohibited him from possessing firearms and other weapons for 10 years.

In arriving at the sentence, the judge noted his crime was “a major sexual assault” and “a serious violation of the victim’s sexual integrity.”

Mathurin said precedents indicate the starting point for judges in consideration of sentences, even for first-time offenders such as Paczay, is three years in prison. But from that point, she said, she had to weigh aggravating and mitigating factors in the case.

The profound emotional effects of his crime on the victim are among the aggravating factors in the case, the judge said, noting she reports feeling isolated and in a state “of constant anxiety.”

“She also reports a lack of trust in other people,” Mathurin said.

But she noted there are several mitigating elements she had to weigh in arriving at the sentence.

“Mr. Paczay has no prior criminal record and is otherwise of good character,” the judge said.

“He has otherwise been a productive member of society.”

During the trial, Paczay, testifying in his own defence, admitted he and the victim hadn’t communicated about the sexual contact, and he had just assumed she was a willing participant.

Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.