A NASS Valley man convicted of sexual assault began his sentence on probation before going to jail.
Harvey David Bright, 41, pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual interference of a person under age 16 in provincial court here Jan. 9 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
Afterward, he will spend 18 months on probation.
His jail sentence couldn’t start immediately that day, which is usually when a jail sentence starts after a conviction.
That’s because the sheriff transfer vehicle to Prince George wasn’t scheduled to leave that day.
It was then decided Bright shouldn’t spend the upcoming weekend at the Terrace RCMP lockup because it would be busy and there was no guarantee of who would be in the cell with him, meaning his safety couldn’t be guaranteed, given the nature of his offence, court heard.
And being in lockup for the weekend meant no bed or shower from Friday until Monday.
As a result, he was put on probation for the weekend and then started his jail sentence Jan. 13 when the sheriff’s office could take him to Prince George.
Conditions on his probation include not having any contact with the victim, not to go within 50 metres of the victim’s residence, attend counselling including a sexual offender treatment program and to have his name registered as a sex offender for 10 years.
He will also have to pay a $100 victim fine surcharge by February 2015 and is under a firearms prohibition for five years.
