Times-Chronicle Staff

An Oliver man is spending the next 15 months behind bars after molesting his daughter at an Oliver campground last year.

The man, in his 50s, cannot be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban protecting the identity of the victim. He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference of a person under 16 and was sentenced Wednesday in provincial court in Penticton.

The incident occurred during a camping trip at an Oliver-area campground in June of 2019. The man admitted to drinking a six pack of beer, most of another 24 pack, moonshine and consuming cannabis prior to entering his daughter’s tent. The man groped his daughter for up to 30 minutes, Crown said.

“In the morning her father woke her up around 6 o’clock in the morning. She recalls him telling her not to tell anyone and not to write anything down. That he could get in a lot of trouble and go to jail, and that she could be taken away,” said Crown counsel Ann Lerchs during the sentencing submissions Wednesday.

The young girl told a social worker and her school principal about the incident the next day.

Court heard the incident has had a large impact on the victim’s mental health. The victim impact statement included drawings of a broken heart with the words “sad” and “mad,” and indicated the victim had resorted to self-harm since the incident. The victim has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well, according to her mother’s victim impact statement.

Crown sought a 15 to 18 month sentence, a range which defence counsel James Pennington agreed with, saying his client takes “full responsibility” for his actions.

“I know I’ve done wrong your honour,” the man said Wednesday prior to his sentence.

“My life, my daughter’s life are really shattered by this … and … all I can say to my daughter is that I’m sorry. I never meant this to happen.”

“You were her dad, somebody she counted on and obviously she was wrong to count on you for that sort of support,” said Judge Greg Koturbash prior to handing down the 15-month sentence.

Koturbash noted the sentence may seem light to some, but added he is bound by the sentencing range set by the BC Court of Appeals, which is nine to 18 months.

The man was the subject of “vigilante justice,” some time after the incident according to Pennington, who pointed to a visible injury on the man’s eye.

“I fully expect the RCMP will become involved in that matter,” Pennington said.

The man was also sentenced to three years of probation upon his release from custody, with conditions not to contact his daughter or ex-partner, not to consume alcohol, not to attend public places where children are present for five years, and he will be listed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.