Quiet sobbing could be heard in the courtroom as the parents of Michael David Mahy’s victims wiped away their tears.
The man accused of molesting four young boys — one as young as eight years old — remained stoic as the judge sentenced him to two years in jail less a day, to be followed by three years probation for sex crimes against children.
Mahy, a former local businessman, never once looked over at the parents of the children he abused. At one point they had all been family friends, but one father said his boys lives were changed forever and “not for the better.”
“What I feel is the judgement was unjust and what I was thinking this whole time is, I knew I had to prepare myself for this,” said the father, whose name is concealed to protect the identity of his sons. “I don’t think a man like that should walk this earth again.”
The former friends sat at opposite sides of the courtroom, the father sometimes offering sideways glances over to Mahy, who never returned their gaze.
“It was a huge betrayal. The individual had the key to my home, freedom in my house whether I was there or not,” the father continued. “We are supposed to look out for each other as friends. I helped him out with his business.”
Michael Mahy was lead away in handcuffs after the judge issued his sentence. The local accountant and bookkeeper had been charged with two counts of sexual interference of a person under 14, two counts of sexual interference of a person under 16 and one count of sexual exploitation against four boys between New Years Day of 2003 and May of 2008.
“I am crying because of our boys,” said one mother who was not aware of the specifics until hearing them in the courtroom. Her children would sometimes stay over at Mahy’s home while his wife was away.
Mahy plead guilty and admitted to massaging and cuddling the boys, fondling their private areas, asking them to change their clothes without leaving the room, taking off his clothes to his underwear.
Previous to these circumstances, Mahy ran a video and online YouTube blog on financial planning and worked with Seianna Financial Services, an accounting firm that included videos featuring Mahy speaking about other financial topics including “Budget with your kids,” but also self-help advice including “Dealing with difficult people” and “Taking things for granted.”
Some of the video blogs started with a prayer session and were listed as educational series about budgeting “with a message of hope and improvement through faith and conviction.”
The Seianna website once listed five locations from Nanaimo to the Saanich Peninsula with Mahy listed under the head office in Esquimalt.
