A man broke into a London, Ont., girl's room. After deal on a lower plea, her mom says there's been no justice
CBC
The girl was 13 years old in September 2022 when she awoke in the middle of the night in her family's London, Ont., home to discover her 27-year-old neighbour near her bed, rubbing her back.
Terrified, she didn't call out for help, but told him to leave. He did — through the second-storey window he'd initially climbed through, scaling along a roof overhang that links their two townhouse units.
The girl waited until later in the morning to tell her mom, scared she'd get in trouble because she'd left her window open. There were cuts in the window screen, according to a police report filed that morning.
"It's a nightmare," the girl's mother told CBC recently. "I couldn't keep my kid safe."
But because of a deal the Crown prosecutor's office made with the man's defence lawyer, he won't have a criminal record if he stays out of trouble and will be allowed to move back next door early in the new year.
The family's story is an example of parts of the justice system working well for victims, and other parts being woefully inadequate, said Jessie Rodger, executive director of Anova, London's agency for survivors of gender-based violence.
"This family should have an outcome that not only responds to the violation that happened but also makes them feel as though it was taken seriously by the justice system," Rodger said.
By all accounts, police investigated the 13-year-old's accusation appropriately, her mom said. Officers interviewed the two as well as others. They took fingerprints and pictures of cuts in the window screen. The man was charged that same day with sexual assault and break and enter.
But in February 2024, after a deal between prosecutors and the defence, the man pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice to the lesser charge of being unlawfully in a dwelling house. His punishment is what's called a conditional discharge — probation for a year, during which time he's not allowed to be near the girl's home or anywhere she might be.
In four months, when the one-year conditions of his sentence expire, the man will be allowed to move back next door to the girl and her family. If he doesn't get into further legal trouble by February 2027, he won't have a criminal record.
"I feel like I've lost my child and like the system failed us. It failed my daughter," her mother, whose identity is protected by a publication ban so not to identify the girl, told CBC. "It's been hell. She questions everything. She's scared of everything. She lived like a prisoner."
The girl is so scared that she has moved in with a relative. The window to her bedroom has been bolted shut. The family say they live in fear for when the man can return to the unit next door. His family continues to live there.
The girl's mother is now trying to get a peace bond against the man, which would prevent him from moving back into the home next door.
The girl's mom said the two had prepared victim impact statements to read aloud in court at the man's sentencing, but they were told the wrong court date. The man's guilty plea and sentencing date came and went without them getting the chance.
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