Fifty bucks and an apology letter is all it takes to get away with taking sexual advantage of an underage girl in British Columbia.
A White Rock man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a 14-year-old girl last August has been ordered to apologize to her in writing, take respectful relationship training and stay away from drugs and alcohol as part of a 12-month conditional discharge handed down at his recent sentencing.
The man, aged 20 at the time of his arrest, also been ordered to pay a $50 fine – what the B.C. Attorney-General’s ministry calls a Victim Surcharge.He was originally charged with sexual assault and sexual interference, but pleaded guilty at a provincial court appearance in March to assault.
The girl, who cannot be named, was under the age of consent at the time of the assault, which rose to 16 last year.
According to the RCMP, on Aug. 9, 2008, the girl went to an all-ages concert at the local curling club arena. She met a 20-year-old male and they left the concert together.
Just after 1 a.m., the police responded to a report of a sexual assault in Centennial Park, where the concert venue was located. They said they believed alcohol was a factor in the assault. The concert was open to all ages, but alcohol was for sale to patrons of legal age.
News reports said when the girl’s father came to pick her up, he found her lying semi-conscious and partially clothed.
The girl was *taken to hospital in Vancouver by ambulance, but no further details about her have been publicized.
The story was splashed all over the front page of the local papers when the arrest was made.
But the scant details of the man’s May 22 sentencing amounted to a tiny item buried at the bottom of a left-facing, inside page (every newspaper’s Hidden Zone).
Tucked under some other news briefs, the story’s drab headline – “Conditional discharge” – certainly didn’t provoke sensationalism.
A week later, however, and I’m still baffled and kind of appalled by the judge’s sentence, leaving me feeling rather cynical about the merits of B.C.’s justice system.
I’m also surprised there hasn’t been much of an outcry in the community and beyond about the sentence, which seems soft to say the least. (Maybe they missed the memo, like I almost did.)
More infuriating is the message I think it sends to victims and to criminals who use force to harm others.
In Canada, about one in 10 sexual assaults is reported to police, according to Stats Can. In 2007, about 24,200 sexual assaults were reported to police, suggesting as many as 512,000 incidents in total took place that year. (The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics Profile Series report, Sexual Assault in Canada 2004 and 2007, is available here.
Given the fact that legal proceedings can drag on for so long, and that even if the accused is found guilty, their sentence may seem incredibly light in view of the nature of the crime, Is it any wonder?
It’s interesting to note about half of the sexual assault crimes reported to police in 2007 involved victims under 18.
Which brings us back to our White Rock case.
What message does it send when a 14-year-old girl reports a crime and the man who admits he did it only has to apologize (thankfully, by letter and not face to face)?
The $50 fine is troubling, too, if only for the unfortunate connotation money in exchange for sex carries in our society – even if the money is for a good cause (the province’s victim services and support fund) and not the individual girl and the sex was actually a crime.
*My guess is the girl’s post-assault ambulance trip to Vancouver was only necessary because a sexual assault kit was needed to collect evidence – a time-consuming procedure that’s so invasive and potentially traumatic that they’re performed with a victims’ assistant or rape crisis volunteer on hand for support. If this is the case, we’ll just have to ask her if she thinks getting a letter of apology was worth it.
