More than seven years in prison for man who sexually abused granddaughters – BC News

A British Columbia man who sexually abused three of his granddaughters, including an act of zoophilia with his dog, has been sentenced to more than seven years in a federal prison.

The 79-year-old man, whose name cannot be disclosed due to a court-ordered publication ban to protect the identities of the victims, was sentenced after being found guilty of four counts of solicitation of sexual contact and one count of zoophilia.

The crimes took place in northern British Columbia between 2004 and 2013, when the victims were between four and 11 years old. Due to the publication ban, the communities where the crimes took place cannot be identified.

In one case, the man ordered his 11-year-old granddaughter to take off her pants and rub margarine on her genitals. He then ordered his dog to eat the margarine.

In another case, he forced a nine-year-old granddaughter to watch pornography and then asked her to “do it for me.” She refused. In another case, he masturbated in front of a four-year-old granddaughter.

The man has no previous convictions and plans to move to Kamloops with his wife after his release from prison.

The prosecution demanded nine years, the man’s defence lawyer six years. Paul Walker, judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, split the difference and sentenced the man to 7.5 years in prison.

In addition to his prison sentence, he will be banned from having any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16 for life. He was also banned from carrying weapons for 10 years and ordered to submit a DNA sample to a national crime database.