The mother who allowed her boyfriend to repeatedly rape her toddler daughter was sentenced to three years in jail in BC Supreme Court in Chilliwack last week.
The woman, S.K.P., who cannot be named due to a publication ban, was convicted of sexual assault for allowing her boyfriend to have sex with the then three-year-old girl several times over many months.
The case dates back to 2012 when a man, K.C, who also cannot be named, was caught by police in the act of sexually assaulting the little girl at the couple’s downtown Chilliwack home.
It was later discovered he had been raping the girl for many months, mostly while she was just two years old.
The man’s cellphone was seized and, along with another cellphone and a computer, he was also found to be in possession of 777 images and 72 videos that met the legal definition of child pornography. He was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
S.K.P. was then charged with sexual assault and failure to provide the necessaries of life.
S.K.P. wept openly back in February when Justice William Grist read his decision. Grist determined that while there was no proof she ever took part in the ongoing rapes, she was legally guilty of the sexual assault charge in that she aided and abetted the ongoing crime by her “culpable acquiescence.”
During the trial on the charge of sexual assault, K.C. testified that on more than one occasion, S.K.P. watched the abuse and even took part occasionally. Given the amount of lying to police and in the courtroom during his own trial, K.C.’s credibility was lacking as a witness.
Still, Grist found that because S.K.P. knew for almost a year the sexual abuse of her daughter continued, and because she did nothing, that constituted aiding and abetting the crime.
“The accused admits that K.C. made requests [to have sex with the girl], maybe a couple of times a month, and that from January 2012 the sexual assaults were continuing,” Grist said. “A failure to act can constitute aiding and abetting.”
“She is guilty of being a party to a large number of sexual assaults,” Grist said of S.K.P. in finding her guilty.
On the charge of failure to provide the necessaries of life, Grist found S.K.P. not guilty because he could not determine that the young girl was in imminent threat of death.
Signoff
