Sexual offences send man to cells
A 28-year-old man has been sentenced to 29 months behind bars after pleading guilty to a series of charges including sexual offences with two 13-year-old girls.
A 28-year-old man has been sentenced to 29 months behind bars after pleading guilty to a series of charges including sexual offences with two 13-year-old girls.
David Johnny Junior Silas pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference and one count of sexual assault involving two teens.
Silas became sexually interested in the girls between October and December 2008, according to a sentencing decision made public late last week.
The sexual interference charge stems from three incidents where Silas kissed the first victim and touched her inappropriately.
The second charge involved a different girl who Silas persuaded to go to her basement room, said visiting territorial court judge Donald Luther.
There, she was sexually assaulted.
In a victim impact statement, the second girl says she "felt scared, guilty and alienated,” the judge said.
Silas had not consumed any alcohol prior to the first offence but was intoxicated for the second, Luther said.
Neither victim had consumed alcohol.
The judge pointed out that Silas has no criminal record other than a 2008 impaired driving conviction. He also was co-operative with police, entered guilty pleas and has a supportive family and community.
"I am satisfied that he will be able to turn things around,” Luther said. "Also of note, he made good use of his time in pre-trial custody.”
After he was charged with the sexual offences, Silas' "life started spiraling out of control,” the judge said. That led to other charges, including impaired driving and failing to attend court.
The length of Silas' sentence was recommended by both prosecutors and the defence.
Luther admitted "this does seem somewhat on the low side” given the serious nature of the charges.
"However, given the fact that we are dealing with experienced counsel here, and given the substantial likelihood that this young man will be able to turn his life around, I can accept the joint submission.”
When he was sentenced in May, Silas had already served 13 months in custody.
Once he is released, he will be on probation for three years.
Comments (5)
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are you kidding? on Jun 21, 2012 at 3:49 am
@yukongirl are you serious? No-one knows what really happened? Is there ANYTHING that could justify sexual assault of a child? Get real.
There is another story - in Wed's news about another serial child molester/rapist who received another pathetic sentence for sexual exploitation. The hits just keep on coming. How on earth did we ever arrive at a justice system that allows children to be victimized in this way - and we excuse the behaviour because they had a bad childhood? Give me a break.
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yukongirl on Jun 20, 2012 at 7:15 am
No one really knows the whole story of what really happened. Judgement has already been passed just let it be..
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flyingfur on Jun 19, 2012 at 5:38 am
It's amazing to me that, more often than not in these cases, that the courts comment on the offender's good behaviour. So other than the fact that he sexually assaulted two 13 year-old girls, he's a wonderful human being who should be able to turn his life around? Great, but what about the young women? How will they do with turning their lives around? Frankly these joint submissions need some scrutiny and we should always start at the maximum sentence and then explain why the offender is getting less than that, and being well behaved since he's been in jail is expected and he should not be given any credit for it.
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Does Canada Care about Woman? on Jun 19, 2012 at 3:53 am
Honestly all you have taught this man is that you can sexually assault women and children and you will only have to do a couple of years??? Do you think that if these guys knew that they would be going in for 5, 10 or 15 years they would think twice about, how did they put it "being interested in girls". What I do know is that if Canada cared about it's women and children they would have tougher laws when they are raped, beat and murdered.
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Irony on Jun 18, 2012 at 7:16 am
29 months! yippee ding ding! -
It's very ironic that next to this article online there's the ads for the campaign about violence against women.
The Solution isn't a web ad but tougher laws.