An Inuvik man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and assaulting a group of children at a park in the community was sentenced to seven months in jail earlier this month.
Benjamin Mitchell, 39, was handed the sentence on Oct. 5 in a Yellowknife court after Judge Garth Malakoe accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence.
In August – the court heard – Mitchell approached a group of children in a park in Inuvik. Mitchell asked a girl in her mid-teens to expose herself multiple times and asked her to come home with him. The girl and the group of children walked away.
When they later returned the area to get ice cream, Mitchell confronted them again.
He asked the girl to expose herself again and touched her breast. He tried to touch the vagina of another girl, also in her mid-teens. Mitchell then punched a young boy in the chest and kicked a young girl, also belonging to the group of kids.
Crown prosecutor Martha Chertkow pointed to a number of aggravating factors related to the assaults as she called for a seven-month sentence.
All of the victims were minors, she said, and the crime marked a continuation of a pattern of behaviour. Mitchell has two prior sexual assault convictions, most recently in 2016, when he assaulted a store employee – another incident of sexual touching in a public place, Chertkow noted.
Mitchell, who was intoxicated during both assaults, doesn't remember either incident, the court heard.
Along with the custodial sentence, Chertkow called for a court-order that would ban Mitchell from public areas where children may be present.
Malakoe considered the Mitchell's written apology to his victims, his mental health and addiction issues and his early guilty plea when coming to his decision, but stressed the need to denounce and deter sexual assaults of children in the territory, which he called "too frequent."
“(Kids) should be able to go get ice cream without being accosted,” said Malakoe.
After his release, Mitchell will be on probation for two years.
He must register as a sex offender for life. For five years, he cannot attend a public park or swimming area where people under the age of 16 are present or can be reasonably expected to be present. He can't attend daycare centres, school grounds and playgrounds. Mitchell is also prohibited from seeking employment or volunteer work that would place him a position of trust over a person under the age of 16, and he cannot contact under-16-year-olds unless under the supervision of someone approved by the courts.