Southampton man guilty of sexually abusing granddaughter
Court finds 73-year-old defendant sexually assaulted, molested girl from time she was four years old until age of 14
Warning: This report contains graphic details of sexual crimes against minors.
A Southampton man charged with sexually abusing his granddaughter and his niece was convicted this week of crimes against the former victim, but acquitted for those against the niece.
The 73-year-old accused stood trial before Court of King’s Bench Justice Thomas Christie without a jury at the Burton Courthouse earlier this week.
The RCMP charged him with counts of sexual assault and sexual interference involving his granddaughter, alleged to have occurred in Southampton between April 2006 and April 2017, as well as counts of sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference on his niece in June 2008.
There’s a court-ordered publication ban on the identities of both complainants - who were under the age of 16 at the times the offences were alleged to have occurred - and as such, the Fredericton Independent isn’t identifying the accused, given the relationships.
Christie, in rendering his decision on the trial Thursday, convicted the defendant of both crimes against his granddaughter, but found inconsistencies in the niece’s testimony raised a reasonable doubt on those three counts and consequently found him not guilty of those allegations.
The judge said testimony indicated the granddaughter had a tumultuous home life and would often stay over at her grandfather’s home because of her father’s alcoholism and the volatility that would bring to the household.
“[She] spent a great deal of time with [her grandfather] growing up,” Christie said, noting that when the girl was to spend weekends with her father, she preferred to stay with her grandfather instead.
All of the witnesses “painted a picture of a large, dysfunctional family,” the judge said, with the defendant’s home serving as something of neutral ground.
“[The accused] testified that he was nice to all the kids who came to his place,” Christie said. “He believed he treated them well.”
Memories of molestation, attempted penetration
The granddaughter testified the sexual abuse started when she was four years old, the judge said, and it continued until she stopped staying at the accused’s home when she was about 14.
The victim testified she would sleep in her grandfather’s bed with a sibling, and when that sibling fell asleep, the defendant would be inappropriate with the girl.
It started off with him touching her breasts and vagina, she recounted.
The victim testified to other such incidents that would occur when she’d go four-wheeling with her grandfather when she was six years old as well.
Christie said the granddaughter, who’s now 20 years old, testified the defendant would put his penis in her mouth while she slept.
There were also instances in which he’d try to penetrate her vagina, she said, but she’d squeeze her legs together tightly to prevent him and she’d tell him to stop.
“Sometimes, [she] testified, [the defendant] would ejaculate, and each incident would last 10 to 20 minutes,” the judge said.
She said some of the abuse occurred at her parents’ homes as well.
“This pattern of behaviour was regular,” Christie said Thursday.
The judge noted that despite the allegations of sexual abuse earlier in her life, the victim testified that she and her boyfriend lived with her grandfather while she was completing high school.
The defendant also testified at trial, Christie said, and he flatly denied all of the allegations against him.
However, he also said that due to medical issues that were documented for the court, he suffers from memory issues arising from a series of mini-strokes the defendant experienced dating back to the 1990s.
Christie said the granddaughter didn’t waver in her testimony. She didn’t disclose the abuse at the time, he said, but she was just a child.
There were some minor inconsistencies and gaps in her evidence, the judge said, but given how long ago the crimes occurred and how young she was, that’s to be expected and doesn’t diminish her credibility.
“I believe the substance of her testimony,” he said. “I do not have confidence in the blanket denial of [the accused.]”
Niece’s account kept changing
However, Christie’s assessment of the niece’s testimony was a different matter.
The niece testified she slept over at the defendant’s home on several occasions as well, noting that he would provide her and other kids with “night clothes” in which to sleep at those times.
“He started to feel my body under my nightie,” the niece testified, referring to times she’d sleep in his bed as the granddaughter described.
She also described an incident during which she was finishing up on the toilet in the bathroom at her parents’ home when he walked in, his pants unzipped and his erect penis sticking out, and he stared at her.
The niece further testified that he made lewd gestures with his fingers and tongue while her parents were nearby.
She said there were times she’d sleep in the same bed as the other complainant, but the granddaughter testified they’d never shared a bed.
The granddaughter also said he’d never provided pyjamas or nighties, Christie said, contrary to the niece’s account.
The judge pointed out the niece gave different accounts of what happened in her statement to police, the preliminary hearing in the case and in her testimony at trial. The inconsistencies included the number of instances of sexual abuse and where they occurred, he said.
Christie said those inconsistencies left him with uncertainty about the incidents she alleges, ultimately giving rise to a reasonable doubt about them.
He noted it’s not that he believes him or disbelieves her, but that he’s not certain enough to convict. Credibility isn’t just about believability, he said, but reliability of the testimony as well.
“I do not have sufficient trust in her evidence as a whole to convict on counts 3, 4 and 5,” the judge said.
Christie ordered the preparation of a pre-sentence report and a victim-impact statement from the granddaughter, and scheduled a sentencing hearing for June 16.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Not much wonder kids/young adults are unstable! What a sick man!! Think of those that are to afraid to come forward!!
Very sad.