Five decades later, a man who committed sex crimes faces sentencing

As a young teen in the 1970s, he was repeatedly sexually abused, in his home and in his own bed, a place where he should have felt safe.

Five decades later, he sat in the public gallery of a provincial courtroom in Kentville, N.S., listening to the sentencing hearing for the perpetrator of those crimes — his own older brother.

On Tuesday, a judge heard arguments from prosecution and defence lawyers about whether the 75-year-old offender should be sent to prison for sex crimes committed about 50 years earlier.

"I am guilty and I deserve to be punished for what I did, however the court decides," the man told Judge Angela Caseley.

CBC News is not naming the offender, who lives in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, as doing so would identify his brother, whose name is banned from publication.

Sexual assault sentences

The younger brother, along with his sister, went to RCMP in 2022 to report what their older brother had done to them when they were children.

Last month, the man was sentenced for sexually assaulting his sister in 1967. The case was so long ago that the man was just 17 years old at the time of the offence, which meant he was sentenced as a youth offender and given two years' probation.

It was at that court hearing that Associate Chief Judge Rhonda van der Hoek remarked that many victims of sex crimes are being forced to testify because stiff sentences are offering no incentive for offenders to plead guilty.

In this case, she noted, the man had pleaded guilty, sparing his vulnerable sister the trauma of describing in court the details of the sexual assault.

The man also pleaded guilty earlier this year to the offences involving his brother. Caseley will hand down a sentence in January, but the arguments in court Tuesday were in sharp contrast to those made last month.

That's because the man was in his 20s at the time he sexually assaulted his brother. Prosecutor Nathan McLean argued he should be sentenced to 3½ years in prison, noting the Supreme Court of Canada has previously ruled adults who abuse children should face long prison terms.

"Here we have multiple instances of sexual assault over a period of years," McLean said.

Defence seeks house arrest

Legal aid lawyer Scott Brownell argued his client should be given a two-year conditional sentence, including 20 months of house arrest followed by a curfew.

He pointed to his client's remorse and guilty plea, which he called an "extremely strong mitigating factor," and said alcohol abuse at the time was an "underlying factor." There's been no further offending in the years since the crimes, the lawyer said, and his client has a good work history. 

"He feels shame and guilt," he said.