Yukon appeal court dismisses case of Whitehorse man who exploited teen girl for months

The Yukon Court of Appeal has dismissed the case of a Whitehorse man who sexually exploited a teen girl from a rural community who was staying in his home so she could attend high school. 

While Kevin Sweeney argued his conviction was flawed, Justice Faiyaz Alibhai, supported by Chief Justice Leonard Marchand and Justice Barbara Fisher, ruled Friday that there was no merit to his grounds of appeal. 

Sweeney is serving a decade-long prison sentence after a Yukon Supreme Court judge, following a trial, convicted him in 2023 of nine charges including sexual assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, and obtaining sexual services from someone under the age of 18. 

The victim was an Indigenous teenager from rural Yukon community who had travelled to Whitehorse to attend high school in 2018. Sweeney offered her housing but over the 10 months she lived in his home, he physically and sexually assaulted her. He also took advantage of her crack cocaine addiction, giving her the drug in exchange for sex. 

Sweeney had denied harming the victim in any way.

On appeal, Sweeney's lawyer argued the trial judge did not properly assess the victim and Sweeney's credibility, which the case hinged on, and that she unfairly applied a different level of scrutiny to the victim compared to witnesses called by the defence. 

Alibhai, in his decision, said those arguments had no merit, and that the trial judge, in finding Sweeney guilty, properly explained her reasoning for how she reached her conclusions. 

He described Sweeney's arguments as attempts to "re-litigate" findings of fact made by the trial judge while not identifying any errors in her methodological approach or reasoning, and dismissed the appeal.