NOVA SCOTIA-A Hammonds Plains man found guilty of groping a woman at a Bedford department store has been handed a four-month jail sentence.
Brian James MacDonald, 27, was convicted of sexual assault in January following a trial in Halifax provincial court.
MacDonald, who is appealing the conviction, was sentenced recently by Judge Amy Sakalauskas.
The judge gave MacDonald 48 days of remand credit, for a net sentence of 72 days in custody.
Sakalauskas made the jail time consecutive to a 28-month prison sentence MacDonald is already serving after pleading guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one of dangerous driving causing bodily harm from a fatal crash in Lower Sackville in October 2017.
After he does his jail time, MacDonald will be on probation for two years. The judge also ordered him to provide a DNA sample and register as a sex offender for 10 years.
The complainant told the court MacDonald brushed his hand against her buttocks as he walked past her in the women’s clothing section at Walmart on the evening of March 18, 2017.
A few minutes later, she said, MacDonald came up in front of her out of nowhere and grabbed her genitals and one of her breasts.
The woman said she screamed as loud as she could and MacDonald ran away. Security video showed him running out the front door of the store with his hood up over his head.
MacDonald turned himself in about a month later after Halifax Regional Police posted his photo on social media.
He testified that he was at the store doing price-checking for a friend who sells items on Kijiji. He admitted accidentally bumping into the woman from behind while trying to leave the store.
MacDonald said the woman screamed that he had sexually assaulted her. He said he told her she was crazy but took off running because he was embarrassed and did not want to be involved.
At sentencing, Crown attorney Sarah Kirby recommended six months in jail for MacDonald, describing his actions as “bold and brazen.”
“This was what could be termed as low-end in terms of physical intrusiveness on the complainant,” Kirby admitted. “But what was aggravating about it was that this was an apparently random act.
“She was identified by Mr. MacDonald in the Walmart. He made one approach at her and then a few minutes later accosted her in a public place in broad daylight — in a place where she had every right to believe that she would be safe.
“She was physically accosted in a way that violated her sexual integrity.”
Although the victim did not file an impact statement for the sentencing hearing, Kirby said it was clear from her testimony at trial that the event affected her for a long time.
Defence lawyer Josh Nodelman argued for a three-month sentence.
Nodelman explained that his client stood trial in June in a different courtroom on a charge of sexual assault from an incident at the outdoor public pool in Bedford last summer.
In that case, a woman testified that someone brushed her buttocks on two occasions while she was in the kiddie pool with her husband and children.
After hearing some of her evidence, MacDonald pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault and received a three-month sentence to be served concurrently to his federal term. He also agreed to a one-year peace bond requiring him to take part in high-intensity programming for sexual offenders that is offered in the federal prison system.
At his recent court appearance, MacDonald also pleaded guilty to breaching his release conditions in April 2018 by failing to reside at the designated address.
The judge gave him 30 days in jail for that offence, with the time to be served concurrently to the sexual assault sentence.
“Your family wants you to get help,” Sakalauskas told MacDonald. “I’m hopeful that you’ll receive that help.”
In his notice of appeal of the sexual assault convictions, MacDonald claims the judge erred in her assessment of credibility and violated his right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He also says his trial lawyer, Alex Embree, provided ineffective counsel “by not questioning the complainant on inconsistencies that would have affected credibility.”
www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/halifax/man-gets-jail-time-for-groping-bedford-walmart-shopper-342... ... See MoreSee Less
WOODSTOCK, N.B. -- A 66-year-old man from Houlton, Maine has been sentenced in New Brunswick to 12 months in jail after pleading guilty to smuggling child pornography.
The charges against Eugene Williams follow an investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency.
The agency says that on April 10, 2018, Williams arrived at the Woodstock, N.B., border crossing seeking entry to Canada and was referred for secondary examination.
During the examination, numerous digital devices were seized and Williams was denied entry to Canada.
Upon further examination it was determined that some of the devices contained images of child pornography, the border agency said in a news release.
Williams was arrested on June 18 of this year when he again sought entry to Canada.
atlantic.ctvnews.ca/u-s-man-sentenced-in-new-brunswick-for-smuggling-child-pornography-1.4558052 ... See MoreSee Less
London male charged for procuring sexual services
LONDON, ON (August 20, 2019) – The London Police Service have laid a number of criminal charges against a London man following an investigation by the Human Trafficking Unit.
In 2017, an adult female reported to police she had been pushed to participate in the sex trade by a man who used both the name “Sean” and “Kevin.” The woman later severed her association with the male.
As a result of this investigation, Nana Kodua Mainoo, 31, of London has been charged with the following Criminal Code of Canada charges:
•Advertising another person’s sexual services x3;
•Material benefit from sexual services x 3;
•Procuring a person to provide sexual services for consideration and;
•Obtaining Sexual Services of Consideration
Police believe there may be additional victims and encourage anyone with information to come forward.
www.londonpolice.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?FeedId=0fcf0b61-be06-4889-a1f6-41aeb3b4b81e&newsId=05... ... See MoreSee Less
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High-Risk Offender Release Adrian Lee Ballantyne
🇨🇦 Published Aug 20, 2019 🇨🇦
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In the interest of public safety, the Calgary Police Service is issuing the following public information and warning in regards to the release of an inmate on completion of his sentence.
Adrian Lee BALLANTYNE, 32, was released to the Calgary community today, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, after serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for sexual interference with a child and failure to comply with a probation order, as well as additional time for breach of a court order. The sexual interference occurred in Edmonton, Alberta, on a female child who was unknown to BALLANTYNE.
Previous convictions also include assault, robbery, uttering threats, indecent exposure to a person under 16 years of age, and property offences. The majority of his crimes have been committed in Alberta.
BALLANTYNE will now be monitored by the Calgary Police Service High Risk Offender Program.
He is described as 6’0” tall, 210 pounds, with a heavy build, black hair and brown eyes. BALLANTYNE has a pockmarked face and multiple tattoos including a teardrop under his left eye and writing on his neck. A photo of BALLANTYNE is available on The City of Calgary Newsroom.
The Calgary Police Service is issuing this information and warning after careful deliberation and consideration of all related issues, including privacy concerns, in the belief that it is clearly in the public interest to inform members of the community of the release of BALLANTYNE.
Members of the public are advised that the intent of the process is to enable them to take suitable precautionary measures and not to embark on any form of vigilante action.
NOTE: This information is released under the authority of section 32 the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, S.A. 1994 c.F – 18.5.
Calgary Police Service
BACKGROUND:
2016, Edmonton man who sexually molested girl gets four-year sentence tinyurl.com/y6sljttl ... See MoreSee Less
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A statement of claim has been filed with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court alleging frequent abuse against former students of residential schools in Halifax and Amherst.
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