Notice how the defense attorney blames "family dysfunction" for the crimes, which is basically a tidy way of making sure no single individual is responsible for anything. And where is the mother in all this? It's not entirely clear at all.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1220636.html
Father jailed for abusing daughter
By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau
Fri, Jan 7 - 4:54 AM
BRIDGEWATER — A Lunenburg County man who sexually degraded his daughter beginning when she was 11 years old and violently assaulted her with a leather strap, a spoon and a broom handle says he is ashamed of what he did.
He also told the Bridgewater provincial court judge who sentenced him last month to 10 months in jail on charges of sexual assault and assault that he still loves his daughter.
The daughter, now a young woman, told the judge that her father’s actions have ruined her, left her feeling unloved, ashamed and ugly.
The man cannot be identified because revealing his name would identify the daughter.
The sentence was 14 months shorter than the two-year jail term Crown attorney Paul Scovil was seeking as a deterrent to others.
"These are heinous crimes that are deserving of denunciation," the prosecutor told Judge Richard MacKinnon prior to sentencing.
Sexually violating a child is "repugnant" but a parent sexually assaulting his own child is the highest form of breach of trust, Scovil said.
Testimony at the trial indicated the man sexually assaulted his daughter three times during a 3 1/2-year period ending in 1999 and physically assaulted her over a 10-year period ending in Feb. 2001.
The woman testified that between the ages of five to 13, her father hit her on the bare buttocks, on the hands or wherever he could reach.
She said he used his leather belt, a leather strap, a spoon and a broom handle. The blows bruised her buttocks and hands, and often caused her hands to crack open and bleed.
The sexual assaults began the Christmas the girl was 11 when he touched her bare breasts and vagina. The other two incidents happened when she was about 13 and 14.
In each case the girl said her father thought she was asleep. None of the incidents involved intercourse and her father had been drinking each time.
"The sexual, physical, emotional, mental and verbal abuse that (my father) has done to me has ruined me as a woman, a mother, a wife, a friend and as a person," the woman wrote in her victim impact statement.
"I feel like I’m living in a prison and I’m tired of it. I’m tired of always feeling so angry, yelling, being unhappy, sad, crying all the time. I feel very unloved. I feel unwanted, dirty, ashamed, fat, ugly. I’m very self-conscious. I have no self-esteem, no confidence."
The man told the judge, "I’m very ashamed, embarrassed and humiliated for everything that transpired . . . and regardless of what anybody in this courtroom thinks, I love my wife and I love my family very much."
His lawyer, Alan Ferrier, said his client had an alcohol problem and was suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts at the time of the assaults. He said there was "significant family dysfunction" at the time.
"The whole family is completely and utterly destroyed by the process that has been involved here," he said.
Testing showed his client is not a predator, Ferrier said.
MacKinnon also ordered the man to serve two years probation and take mental health and anger management counselling as well as counselling regarding sexually deviant behaviour if his probation officer deems it necessary.
The judge ordered him to stay away from public areas such as parks, pools, schools or community centres where children under the age of 16 could gather. He also banned him for 20 years from using a computer to contact anyone under the age of 16.
