Warning, this story contains graphic details
A Calgary judge knocked two years off a 10-year sentence he would have given a man who terrorized and repeatedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl he met when he was 25 because the offender is Indigenous.
The man of Cree heritage on his mother’s side, who first met the girl on Instagram, is identified only as RJM
in a decision from the Alberta Court of Justice
. His victim, who he assaulted and threatened to kill multiple times between the spring and fall of 2023, is identified as AB.
“The offender repeatedly had sexual intercourse with her knowing that he held the power in the situation not only because of their age difference but also because he had inflicted physical harm on her and psychological terror to ensure that she would comply,” Justice Jayme Williams wrote in a recent decision.
RJM’s lawyer argued for a six-year sentence for her client who also plead guilty to leading police on a wild chase before he was arrested in September 2023 and to threatening the girl and her mother once he was locked up to convince her to recant her statement to police.
The Crown recommended the man be sentenced to 10 years in a penitentiary.
“But for his Gladue factors, I would have imposed the sentence sought by the Crown,” Williams said in his decision dated Sept. 15 that sentenced RJM to eight years in prison.
Gladue principles were set out in a Supreme Court of Canada decision a quarter century back and indicate sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as systemic issues like the impact of residential schools, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons.
“The offender’s life has been directly influenced by many of the Gladue factors,” Williams said.
“He has existed for extended periods of time in his life in a state of severe poverty or homelessness, he is under educated, he has struggled with severe addiction issues and as a child was taken from his family and placed in a foster care system where he was sexually abused and separated from his siblings. The racism he faced in his own family and in the outside world, no doubt impacted his views as to how others should be treated.”
According to the decision, RJM “lives his life in a state of fight versus flight, it is a direct reflection of how he has been forced to live since a very young age.”
The court heard the man had dragged the girl by the hair and punched her in the face.
“He also threw an object at her and struck her with a metal pole. These acts resulted in her having a large bruise on her right arm and another bruise on her neck. After the physical assault concluded, he pulled her pants off and penetrated her vagina with his penis. A.B. did not wish to have sexual intercourse with him on this occasion, he stopped, pulled his penis out of her vagina, and started to cry,” said the decision.
“On another occasion he drove her out of the city and left her on the side of the road to walk back. He eventually returned for her.”
The court also heard he threatened to kill the girl’s mother and her cat, “specifically telling A.B. she was a ‘dead slut’ and that her mother A.C. was ‘going to get hit too.’ He told A.B. that he would put a bullet in her head and stated that there was a bomb and A.C.’s car would be totaled. A makeshift nail bomb had been placed under A.C.’s car. She discovered it after she ran over it and it exploded.”
Shortly after RJM met the girl online, they agreed to meet in person at the Anderson Light Rail Train station,” said the decision. “Between this first meeting and his arrest in September, they met almost every second day” and regularly had sexual intercourse.
A.B. told him she was 16, said the decision. “He took no steps to substantiate her age initially, but on (Sept. 1, 2023) the offender took a photograph of A.B.’s passwords and accessed her Calgary Board of Education account. It was on this date that he learned she was 13.”
He admitted being violent with her when the girl was still 12 while they were driving around in his car, said the decision. “They began to argue about infidelity. He brandished a knife pointing it at A.B. and telling her he was going to kill her. He also searched her phone confirming she was not cheating.”
Once he learned her true age, RJM “confronted her via text message about lying. His texts divulge his awareness that her actual age resulted in ‘a whole new level of consequences.’”
He made a “conscious decision to continue the relationship despite his receipt of this new information,” said the decision. “He speaks to A.B. in possessive terms stating, ‘better or worse you belong to me,’ ‘that p—y is mine and that bulls–t sexy little attitude,’ ‘delete every message I ever send to you at the end of the night.’”
His texts on Sept. 4, 2023, “include a mix of disbelief that she is so young and a decision to sexually make the most of her age. There is a progression detailed in the (agreed statement of facts) from him being disturbed by her age to him being aroused by it,” said the decision.
“The texts begin with the following sentiments, ‘I’m in shock,’ ‘I’m seriously disturbed right now like feel really scared,’ ‘I can get labelled after a pedophile’ and progress to ‘I might as well earn these potential life changing charges.’”
While RJM seems “concerned about the potential jeopardy he faces as a result of his conduct initially, telling her to delete all of his messages by (Sept. 5, 2023), he is making no effort to hide it.”
One of the girl’s friends called Calgary Police Service on Sept. 11, 2023, “as a result of aggressive text messages the offender sent to A.B. while her friend was present. These texts included the offender calling A.B. a ‘f–king rat,’ ‘f–king piece of s–t’ and ‘f–king whore.’ He threatened to shoot up and burn down her mother’s residence and that of her friend. He threatened to kill her mother and her friends and he sent a video of him holding a blowtorch and a video showing that he was outside the residence of A.B.’s mother. He texted ‘Where the f–k are you slut, Daddy’s gunna slit your throat you f–king whore.’”
Police found him driving southbound on 18th Street at Glenmore Trail SE.
“They attempted to stop him and he fled,” said the decision.
“He was pursued by several marked police vehicles and (police helicopters) at different times during a chase that lasted over 26 minutes and covered approximately 18.6 km.”
RJM “drove at speeds well over posted speed limits, reaching a speed of 140 kms/hr at one time during the chase. He ran numerous red lights.”
Police tried “a high-risk vehicle stop at one point at 114th Ave SE and Barlow Trail which was unsuccessful,” said the decision.
When RJM drove into a garage at the Anderson LRT station police attempted to contain him, said the decision. “He rammed the closed garage door to escape causing $10,000 worth of damage.”
He eventually then drove through a residential green space, hitting a fence and a tree before abandoning the car.
RJM fled on foot and got into the sunroom of a home on Canterville Road SW, said the decision. “When confronted by residents of that property, he fled on foot and was intercepted and arrested by officers.”
When RJM was arrested, police searched his backpack, which contained a manilla folder, said the decision. “The folder had ‘BOOM FOLDER’ written on the front and ‘Munitions Supply Folder, Burials, Advanced Techniques’ written on the back. Inside it contained documents which included details for making explosives, modified ammunition, improvised firearms, and techniques on how to properly dig a grave.”
A search of RJM’s car turned up a butane torch, rifle cleaning kit, hatchet, pick-axe, sledgehammer and knife.
While he was in custody and subject to and order not to contact A.B., RJM called her 15 times, said the decision.
“He also called R.Y., a friend of his in an effort to have A.B. drop the charges,” it said, noting RJM was “urging his friend to get her to, ‘recant her statement so (he) can get out of here.’ Noting that if she dropped the charges, he wouldn’t have to ‘get her house shot up.’”
According to the judge, RJM “was involved in a sexual relationship with a teenager for over three months. He was aware she was 13 for 10 days. His conduct was intentional over the course of that 10 days and the sexual acts were continual. This was not a temporary lapse of judgment on his part. In fact, his arousal having learned that A.B. was 13 resulted in the sexual acts becoming more egregious over the course of that 10 days.”
Those acts didn’t stop until police arrested RJM, said the judge.
“The gravity of any major sexual assault against a child is high but the gravity of these specific offences is higher than most,” Williams said. “While I recognize the physical impacts were somewhat transient, I have no doubt the psychological injuries will be long standing.”
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