A man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a sleeping woman in Yellowknife nearly two years ago has been sentenced to 18 months in jail followed by two years probation.
Eric Gargan, 54, moved from a seat beside his lawyer to the prisoner’s booth Monday afternoon after receiving the sentence from Justice Shannon Smallwood in NWT Supreme Court.
“I’m still feeling very sorry for what I’ve done,” Gargan told Smallwood.
In December 2016, the court heard, a woman was sleeping in Gargan’s Yellowknife apartment when she awoke to him sexually assaulting her. The victim pushed Gargan away. He then locked himself in a bathroom and told her he hadn’t. done anything. The woman attempted to enter the locked bathroom to confront Gargan before leaving his apartment.
In calling for a sentence of 18 to 20 months, plus three years probation, Crown prosecutor Morgan Fane asked Smallwood to consider the aggravating factors of the sexual assault. Fane noted that Gargan served three-and-a-half years in prison for a sexual assault in the 1990s -- a dated but relevant offence he asked Smallwood to weigh when coming to her decision.
The offence, Fane said, also followed a local pattern of women being sexually assaulted while in vulnerable positions -- sleeping or passed out.
Gargan’s lawyer, Paul Falvo, said his client, who was intoxicated and reportedly has no memory of the assault, decided to plead guilty in August after hearing his victim testify during a preliminary inquiry.
“It really hurt me when I saw her crying. I can’t change … what I’ve done,” Gargan said, telling Smallwood he would apologize to the woman if she were in court.
Falvo outlined his client’s childhood and upbringing -- one marked by emotional and physical abuse. Gargan, who is from Fort Providence, attended a residential school, and has struggled with alcoholism throughout his life, said Falvo.
Standing to address Smallwood before being sentenced, Gargan revisited his conviction from more than two decades ago, telling her he was convicted without evidence.
“Just the word of a woman,” he said.
“Sometimes that’s all that’s required,” interjected Smallwood.
With two convictions for sexual assault, Gargan must now register as a sex offender for life.
Smallwood noted Gargan’s victim was in a vulnerable position and couldn’t defend herself during the sexual assault -- an experience, she said, that sadly comes before NWT courts often.
Gargan was ordered to submit a sample of his DNA and has been banned from possessing firearms for 10 years, an order for which he’ll be able to seek an exemption as a hunter and trapper.