![['Summerside Provincial Courthouse.']](https://saltwire.imgix.net/summerside-courthouse-3149931.jpg?cs=srgb&fit=crop&h=568&w=847&dpr=1&auto=compress%2Cenhance%2Cformat)
The accused fathered a child with his then 15-year-old girlfriend when he was 26.
The case was called in Summerside Provincial Court Wednesday and scheduled for a return on Jan. 18, 2018.
The report was requested by the accused’s attorney, Trish Cheverie. She told the court it would help provide Judge Jeff Lantz with more information, including potential treatment plans for the accused, to consider when he decides on sentencing.
Crown attorney David O’Brien is seeking a jail term of between two and a half and three years.
The Crown’s summation of the facts of the case were entered into the court record on Wednesday. Cheverie said she did not have any dispute with the facts as presented, but would likely have more to add to them when the case returned in the new year.
There is a court-ordered publication ban on any information that could lead to the identity of the victim in this case.
According to the Crown’s summation, both Summerside Police Services and Child Protection Services were aware of accusations that the accused was living with and having intercourse with the victim prior to her pregnancy, but couldn’t prove it conclusively.
Police spoke with the victim and the accused on several occasions, individually and together, warning them that the girl was underage and it was a serious crime for the male to have sex with her. The age of consent in Canada is 16.
Neither the victim nor the accused admitted during any of those conversations with authorities to ever having had sex with each other.
In early 2015 Child Protection Services became aware that the girl was pregnant and informed Prince County Hospital that it was to be notified when the baby was born, which it did. A police and Child Protection Services investigation was then started.
During the investigation, a paternity test was secured by police, which determined the accused was more than 99 per cent likely to be the baby’s father.
During a subsequent interview with police it was explained to the accused again that because of his age it was sexual assault for him to have intercourse with a 15-year-old.
He replied, “I don’t have a problem with that, if you do and the rest of the government does than that’s their problem, not mine. I don’t have anything wrong with that.”
The accused was charged on May 24, 2016. He originally pleaded not guilty to the charge but changed his plea to guilty on Aug. 14, 2017.
The victim has since reunited with her family.
@JournalPMacLean
