An Alberta man who went all the way to the Supreme Court arguing that a teenage girl he sexually assaulted had actually consented was sentenced Friday to one year in jail.

Steve Ewanchuk, 51, was charged in 1994 after exposing himself and putting his genitals on the shorts of a 17-year-old girl he was interviewing for a job.

The teenager said she declined his advances, and asked him to stop three times. But she admitted in court that she didn't fight him off vigorously because she was worried he would become violent.

In 1995, Ewanchuk was found not guilty of sexual assault when a judge ruled that the accused was under a "mistaken belief" that the victim had consented.

Three years later, the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal, describing Ewanchuk's repeated fondling of the victim as "far less criminal than hormonal," and suggesting that the girl "was not lost on her way home from a nunnery."

But in 1999 the Supreme Court rejected the existence of a "mistaken belief" defence in sexual assault cases, ruling that "no" really does mean "no".

It ordered Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice John Moore to sentence Ewanchuk, a custom cabinet-maker.

The case was delayed when the Crown tried to have Ewanchuk declared a dangerous offender for a series of previous convictions for rape, as well as several unproven sexual complaints against him over the past three decades. But prosecutors ended up dropping the application.

Ewanchuk's defence lawyer said he is disappointed by Friday's sentence, saying he didn't think the judge would put his client behind bars. He had expected Ewanchuk to receive a conditional sentence, and is considering an appeal.