Yellowknife man sentenced for sexual assault of 13-year-old
CBC
Warning: This story contains details that may be disturbing to anyone who has experienced sexual assault or knows someone affected by it.
A Yellowknife man was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2021.
Bradley Storm Beaulieu, 26, appeared in a Yellowknife courtroom via video from an Alberta prison where he's serving unrelated sentences for impaired driving offences.
This week, the court heard the facts of Beaulieu's sexual assault case. He pleaded guilty last fall. The victim's name and any information that could identify her are under a publication ban.
Beaulieu, then 22, first met the victim at a Yellowknife gas station in the summer of 2021, and they connected on social media.
The girl told him that she was 13 years old, but Beaulieu pursued her anyway.
He asked her to come to his house and offered to pay her $100. She went over, and Beaulieu had sex with her. The girl wanted to leave, but Beaulieu didn't stop. The girl could not legally consent regardless, because of her age. The court heard that she was scared and didn't know what to do.
After RCMP charged Beaulieu, the girl was prepared to testify, but on the morning she was set to appear in court, Beaulieu pleaded guilty.
Crown prosecutor Morgan Fane said the girl's aunt characterized her niece's experience as "a life sentence" that will affect her for the rest of her days.
The Crown asked the court for a four-to-five year sentence for the sexual assault, to be served as soon as his current sentences end.
Fane said his proposed sentence was "restrained," taking into account that Beaulieu was a young adult when he committed the crime, but also "denunciatory of the abhorrent conduct."
A pre-sentencing Gladue report revealed that Beaulieu had a difficult childhood. He was mostly raised by his grandparents, who survived residential school. His parents drank and he experienced family violence. He lost a close friend to suicide.
But Beaulieu's lawyer, Jay Bran, said his client was working on himself in prison. He said Beaulieu got his GED, and he's become a skilled carpenter. Bran added that Beaulieu has taken nearly two dozen courses in prison related to drugs and alcohol.
"This bodes well for his eventual return to the community," said Bran.
A report by the City of Calgary presented to councillors says blanket rezoning has so far required only "minimal" upgrades to infrastructure.
Changes are coming to residential recycling in Toronto starting in the new year, two councillors announced on Thursday.
Before a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s northwest coast can be built, there's another box that needs to be checked: a massive investment in carbon capture and storage in central Alberta.
Jeremy Tunraluk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), is on leave from his position after he was charged with assault.
The head of Canada's Leaders' Debates Commission says the independent body should stop organizing post-debate news conferences and will make changes to how it decides what leaders to invite after this spring's leadership debate was surrounded by controversy.
The Alberta Health Services CEO who took over after a controversial firing in January is now himself off the job.
Standing inside her non-profit managed rental unit in central Windsor, Ont., Sue Pare points to a crack in her kitchen floor she can’t get fixed.
Five people were sent to hospital, including one person with life-threatening injuries, after a fire broke out at a fraternity house near Western University prompting a police investigation.
A rusting and derelict ship that’s been looming large over the waterfront in Springdale for years will soon be removed and disposed of by the federal government.
Greater Sudbury taxpayers will be paying 3.9 per cent more in property taxes in 2026.
When it comes to wintry weather, the Maritimes has certainly dipped a toe into the water with this week's chilly temperatures and snow.
N.B. Power is warning that the U.S. company it hired to build and run a billion-dollar gas plant could walk away in April — a move that would set the project back years, and possibly lead to power shortages in the province.
After Serge Belloncik suffered a stroke in 2022, he developed aphasia, a communication disorder affecting his ability to speak.