A South Okanagan man with an inclination for younger boys was found guilty of three breaches of his probation.
Graham Dodge approached a 12-year-old and 13-year-old boy on separate occasions at the Penticton Public Library. Previous charges of sexual assault and interference on a person under 16 put him on strict conditions including not to be in communication with anyone under that age and not to use the Internet unless with the permission of his probation officer.
Having been behind bars since he was arrested almost 14 months ago, Justice Alison Beames sentenced him to serve an additional 30 days and put him on 30 months of probation.
“I have taken into account the seriousness of the breaches and the fact that the contacts with the two children were relatively innocuous, other than the one case that might have led to something more had it not been for the watchful eye of the librarian,” said Justice Alison Beames.
Dodge, 25, told police he had “relapsed” because one of the boys fit his type and he made the wrong choice to speak with them. One of the boys told RCMP Dodge introduced himself at the library computer stations under a different name, said he was from Vancouver and could help the boy break into the music industry.
Two days later the librarian noticed Dodge speaking to another boy at the computer stations and she thought Dodge was sitting unusually close to him. It was a few hours later when the first boy Dodge contacted came into the library with his mother. The librarian again witnessed Dodge talking to a boy she believed he did not know and confronted him. The librarian went with her hunches and called RCMP. Minutes later Dodge was found outside the library and arrested.
Both of the boys told RCMP Dodge never touched them, but one of them said Dodge had invited him over to watch movies. Dodge told police that he wasn’t sure if he would have taken it to the point of being sexual with one of the youths, but had gone through what the experience would be like in his head.
“He was a really cute boy,” Dodge said.
Defence council indicated Dodge is trying to get into the year-long Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Community program in Prince George which deals with men suffering from all kinds of addiction when he is released from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre. Dodge said he very much views his attraction to younger boys as an addiction.
Conditions of Dodge’s bail will prevent him from being on the Internet for 12 months unless he has prior approval from probation. Dodge will also have to abstain from intentional contact with anyone under the age of 16, not be in any public, swimming area where people of that age are likely to gather and is not allowed at the Penticton Public Library.
The judge said the last condition only applies to Penticton because she did not want Dodge bumping into the two boys.
Dodge pled guilty in 2008 for a number of breaches and charges of sexual assault and sexual interference on a person under 16.
The pre-sentence report at that time showed he scored high on a test that determined he was at 26 per cent likelihood to reoffend within five years.
Two years later he was found guilty of breaching the conditions of his probation when a teen from New Brunswick contacted RCMP stating he had been in contact with Dodge via the computer through chat websites and on Skype. The teen said Dodge, who was using a different name, told him that he had prior arrests and had been in contact with other boys and had sent over 200 images of child porn to someone via email. A second breach happened when he acted in a sexual manner towards a 14-year-old. Dodge denied all the charges.
