Warning: This story contains descriptions of child abuse, which may be disturbing to readers.
A B.C. man who was caught on a nanny camera choking and kicking his girlfriend’s’ two-year-old-old son has been sentenced to six months in jail, according to a recent court decision.
The man, who is referred to by the initials K.J.M. due to a publication ban in place to protect the toddler’s identity, pleaded guilty to one count of assault by choking and one count of assault and was sentenced in provincial court last month.
“The court takes notice that this violence against the toddler, when he was so young, will have an inevitable and long-term impact on the toddler. Violence is a known adverse childhood experience,” Judge Tamera Golinsky wrote in her decision.
“The extent of the impact is unknown, but I have no trouble finding that there will have been an impact.”
K.J.M. was living with the child’s mother at the time of the assaults, acting as a stepparent and caregiver, the decision said. The assaults happened on two occasions, two days apart. Both times, the 28-month-old was in his bedroom wearing only a diaper, according to the judgment.
“Neither assault could be considered minor,” Golinsky wrote.
“On the first occasion, he kicked then choked the toddler, holding him down against the carpet while the child screamed. Two days later, he went into the child’s room again while the child was crying, and he kicked the toddler in the head and left him lying on his back on the bed. There is no evidence or suggestion by K.J.M. that he returned on either occasion to check on the well-being of the child or to try to comfort the child.”
The court heard the child’s mother discovered the assaults after finding a scrape on her son, which prompted her to review the nanny-camera video.
Crown counsel was asking for a jail sentence of one year, while the defence was asking for a sentence of two years less a day to be served in the community.
The judge described the victim as “vulnerable and defenceless,” and noted the toddler was assaulted in his bedroom, a place where a child ought to be safe, by a person in a position of trust. Those things, combined with the fact there were two separate assaults, and that neither could be “characterized as momentary lapses in judgment” weighed in favour of time behind bars.
“The offences K.J.M. committed are of such gravity, and his moral culpability for these offences so great, that a conditional sentence would not be proportionate and would be inconsistent with the fundamental purpose of principles of sentencing,” Golinsky wrote.
However, the judge found K.J.M.’s guilty plea, lack of criminal record, expression of remorse, Indigenous ancestry, ongoing impacts from a traumatic brain injury, and efforts to live a sober and stable life “support a shorter sentence than that sought by the Crown.”
K.J.M. was sentenced to six months in jail on each count, to be served concurrently.
After he is released from jail, he will be bound by a probation order for 18 months with conditions that include no contact with children under 10 except in limited circumstances, and a weapons prohibition.
