ST. THOMAS, Ont. - So heartbroken was the mother of a four-year-old girl whose father sexually assaulted her live on the Internet, she would rather have learned her husband was dead than discover the truth about his "despicable" behaviour, court heard Wednesday.
In what prosecutors believe to be the first case of its kind, the 35-year-old man was convicted on seven counts after exposing his daughter last year to an undercover police officer during a chat room conversation.
The man, from St. Thomas, Ont., can't be identified to protect his daughter. He's just one of 82 men arrested worldwide as a result of a global police operation dubbed Project Wickerman, which began with the arrest of an Edmonton man.
In a victim impact statement read in court by the Crown prosecutor, the mother told her husband's heart-wrenching sentencing hearing that it would have been easier to learn he was dead than to find out what a "cruel person" he was.
"How will my daughter develop and grow with the knowledge of what (he) did to her?" she said in the statement.
"The lives of my family were ripped apart and turned upside in 17 minutes."
Crown lawyers are seeking a sentence of five years in prison in addition to the 14 months the man has already served.
The girl, when asked about the assault, said, "The policemen put handcuffs on Daddy so he wouldn't touch me," court was told.
"I don't think I'll call him Daddy anymore," she's quoted as saying in a report filed by a psychologist.
Outside court, the woman thanked the police for "saving my child."
"I pray that this does not happen to any other family and I need for the public to know that we have to stop this," she said.
When a family member dies, she added, "You are left with wonderful memories. This will never be finished for my family . . . this will never be a happily-ever-after for us."
Inside the courtroom, the woman wept as the transcript of the Oct. 29, 2006 online chat with the undercover officer was read into the record.
"Wow . . . who is it," the officer writes after viewing a picture the man sent during the web chat.
"My four-year old," the man replies.
When the officer asked if the pictures really are of his daughter the man replies: "Yup, she's upstairs right now asking if I can give her a bath . . . I can prove it if you like."
An agreed statement of fact entered into the record when the man pleaded guilty to the charges Oct. 15 shows he sexually assaulted his daughter in the bathtub and took pictures of her genitals in January 2006, several months before the October chat room discussion.
He was arrested the same day the chat took place after he exposed his daughter in front of a webcam and transmitted three images to the officer.
"This was his natural child . . . this man was doing it live," said Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Maguire.
"This man brought his daughter (downstairs) for the entertainment of another man."
Maguire told the court that the Crown's office was unable to find another case in which someone had sexually assaulted their child live on the Internet.
"This is the first time, to my knowledge, this has been adjudicated," she told the court. "It ought to be the last time."
In arguing for a sentence that would amount to two more months in prison, defence lawyer Bob Upsdell said his client has expressed, to him, "his profound remorse, regret and shame over all this."
The man's Oct. 29 web chat came after numerous arrests in the highly publicized Wickerman probe in March, the court heard.
"It was almost as if he was hoping to get caught," said Upsdell. "He didn't know how to come forward . . . and to confess his difficulties."
Upsdell told the court his client had been physically assaulted twice behind bars and feared that a third such incident was imminent.
He also noted the man, who had been a "very large man," had lost 130 pounds since his arrest.
"That's very telling in a case like this," said Upsdell.
Maguire argued the man appeared to enjoy the online assault and was encouraging the undercover officer to commit similar acts.
She likened him to Michael Briere, the Toronto man who raped and killed nine-year-old Holly Jones after viewing child pornography online.
"It could have been far more disastrous for this child," she said.
Ontario Superior Court Justice John McGarry reserved his decision on sentence until Thursday.
This man deserves a life sentence, not 5 years...
