Keremeos RCMP Cpl. Mike Gallagher confirmed Roy O’Donaghey surrendered Thursday morning to police in Chilliwack.
Gallagher said he expected O’Donaghey would appear before a judge in the Fraser Valley, who would then decide how to proceed with the matter.
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Posted: Oct. 8, 2014:
An arrest warrant has been issued for a man convicted of exposing his genitals to two boys in Keremeos.
Roy Charles O’Donaghey is now wanted by police after he failed to show for his sentencing hearing Wednesday in provincial court in Penticton.
Defence counsel James Pennington said his client hasn’t answered recent phone calls and text messages.
“I’m a bit disappointed he’s not responded to our invitation to attend court,” said Judge Greg Koturbash, before issuing the arrest warrant.
Crown counsellor Catherine Crockett declined outside court to say whether she’s seeking jail time for O’Donaghey, who was 57 at the time of the offences in 2011.
One of the boy’s mothers, who can’t be named to due a publication ban on the victims’ names, said she’s frustrated by the latest delay in the case, which has been stalled for 10 months during preparation of pre-sentencing reports.
“I had hoped for an end so my son can move on,” she said.
“This has been three years ongoing and it just doesn’t seem to be taken seriously.”
The mother said she’s been told O’Donaghey is living in a campground near Hedley, after being evicted from his previous home near the school in Keremeos.
She previously expressed concern her son was re-victimized every time he saw O’Donaghey, who was free on bail, out in the small community.
Following a trial, Koturbash convicted O’Donaghey in December 2013 on two counts of exposing his genitals to a person under 16.
In his reasons for judgement, Koturbash rejected O’Donaghey’s claim that his penis had accidentally been exposed to one of the boys and instead accepted the complainant’s testimony that O’Donaghey pulled the leg of his shorts to one side to let a dog lick his genitals.
O’Donaghey told the RCMP the dog was licking boils on his groin to clean them, an assertion backed up by O’Donaghey’s wife’s testimony at trial.
The second complaint stemmed from an incident when one of the boys spotted a pellet gun while moving boxes in the back of O’Donaghey’s truck. The boy said O’Donaghey responded by putting his penis on the truck’s tailgate and telling the boy to use his penis as a target.
