24th-February-2007
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Disabled mom jailed for sex assault | |
Quote: Disabled mom jailed for sex assault
Appeal court hands tougher sentence to woman who sexually assaulted son
By TONY BLAIS, COURT BUREAU
EDMONTON (Sun Media) - Alberta's top court has ruled that a handicapped woman who sexually assaulted her young son and sent pornographic images of him to her "master" must be put behind bars.
Calling the two-year conditional sentence to be served in the community earlier given to the woman "demonstrably unfit," a Court of Appeal of Alberta panel has ordered the 38-year-old to serve 18 months in jail.
The three-judge panel, led by Chief Justice Catherine Fraser, ruled the sentencing judge failed to give proper weight to the primary sentencing considerations in child sex-abuse cases, deterrence and denunciation.
"Not only is forcing a six-year-old child to engage in fellatio itself an egregious form of child abuse, the abuse here was perpetrated by a parent, the very person to whom a child looks for protection and care," Fraser says in a written decision released yesterday.
"This constitutes an extreme form of abuse of trust."
The panel also ruled the original judge erred in accepting as a mitigating factor the fact that the woman did not experience any personal sexual gratification, saying she did what she did to keep her relationship with her master.
"Put simply, when faced with a choice, this mother chose Thomas and her dysfunctional relationship with him over her six-year-old son and her parental obligations to him."
The panel also said the judge failed to give proper weight to deterring and denouncing the scourge of child porn.
As well, the appeal court said the judge erred by not imposing a fit jail sentence on the woman because she suffers from cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair.
The panel ruled a prison term of four to five years would have been appropriate, but reduced it because the woman disclosed the offences, pleaded guilty and was herself exploited by her "predator" master.
The woman, who cannot be identified under a publication ban protecting the now-nine-year-old boy, pleaded guilty to sexual interference and transmitting child porn.
Court heard the woman met her "master," Thomas Brian Feehan, 56, of Ottawa, in an Internet chat room relating to the bondage-discipline-sadism-masochism lifestyle.
Over time, Feehan had her perform sexual acts with sex toys on a webcam. It progressed to him sending her child porn and her sending him nude pictures of her son. She also admitted placing her son's penis in her mouth once.
She was arrested Sept. 30, 2004, after a six-month investigation and her son was apprehended by social services.
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~ Men are not collectively "guilty" of anything. ~
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