The mother of a seven-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by her father received no notification the man was being released early from jail.

“It was a really nasty shock,” the mother told the Star in an interview.

“I dropped the glass I was holding when they told me.”

A publication ban prohibits disclosing any details that would publicly identify the girl. That includes the man’s and the mother’s names.

The offender was sentenced to a year in jail in July 2015.

The father admitted to sexually assaulting his daughter, who was six years old at the time, more than 10 times.

At a meeting with territorial victim services officials after the man’s release, the mother was told that a miscommunication had led to the absence of timely notification.

Neither the RCMP nor victim services staff were notified ahead of time, she said.

She learned of the man’s release on March 9, the day he left the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) – and by accident.

She has decided not to tell her daughter.

Now seven, the girl has stopped having nightmares.

“She stopped screaming through the nights,” her mother said.

“It took her a long time to realize that he couldn’t hurt her anymore.”

The parents had shared custody of the girl at the time the assaults took place.

The child would stay with him during the week and visit her mom during the weekends.

From June 2013 to January 2014, the man sexually assaulted his daughter in a basement bedroom.

The girl told a school librarian, who reported it.

At the sentencing hearing in July 2015, Judge Michael Cozens said it was clear the family was in “considerable pain.”

“(The girl) will be dealing with the trauma for the rest of her life,” he said at the time. “But her victimization will not define her.”

The girl is now in a safe place, and has access to weekly counselling.

She doesn’t talk about her father and wants nothing to do with him, her mother told the Star.

“I want a new dad,” her daughter told her.

Despite that lapse, victim services staff did a good job helping her, the mother pointed out.

“(And) the cops were very thorough; they wouldn’t give up,” she said. She was referring to several interviews the police conducted back when the man was denying the accusations.

Asked about the case, a Department of Justice spokesperson told the Star it cannot comment because of privacy considerations.

Sentenced inmates can earn up to 15 days of remission for every month served, the department noted.

In the man’s case, he was released four months early.

The mother said she was told he was a “model inmate.”

“Victim services works closely with WCC and Offender Supervision and Services. Updates are given at Sexual Offender Risk Management Meetings and WCC often contacts Victim Services to gather victim input or to notify victims, of inmates being released or being out of the facility on pass,” department spokesperson Tyler Plaunt told the Star in an email.

“The Director of Victims Services will receive, evaluate or respond to any submission from a victim who considers that the Yukon Victims’ Bill of Rights has not been respected in their case or who has other concerns with the administration of the Yukon Victims of Crime Act.”