Stepfather jailed for sex abuse.

He said he knew he had to “pay for" his actions.
“I will take whatever you say is right,” the 36-year-old London man told Ontario Court Justice John Skowronski. “There are no excuses for my behaviour.”
The man was being sentenced for sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and sexual interference of a girl who was his stepdaughter. Her identity — and consequently his — is protected by court order.
“I’m truly sorry for my misbehaviour and truly ashamed for what I’ve done,” he said Tuesday.
“I wish I could go back in time and make everything right.”
Skowronski sentenced the man to 18 months in jail for the abuse of the girl from age nine in 2000 until she was 12.
Last May, she disclosed the abuse to her family, leading to the man’s arrest and charges.
Skowronski reviewed the facts.
The girl had told the man she wanted a Nintendo game system. He persuaded her to allow him to touch her over the clothing for it.
The abuse escalated over the years to pushing her on a bed and sexually assaulting her, putting his hands down her pants, rubbing against her and telling her to touch him. He told her he’d ground her if she didn’t comply with what he wanted.
The girl became depressed and suicidal. She tried to slit her wrists. For awhile his behaviour stopped, but he’d traumatize her by walking up to her bedroom door and saying he was about to abuse her again.
The man had no criminal record and had been sexually abused as a child. He emigrated to Canada from Central America.
Assistant Crown attorney Gary Fowler and defence lawyer Lakin Afolabi agreed the sentence should be in the range of 15 to 18 months.
Afolabi told Skowronski his client had written diary entries directed to the girl to say “he let her down as a father figure and asked for forgiveness.”
Skowronski said the request was “at the lower end of the range” and he would have considered a prison sentence, rather than jail, had the submission been for more time.
The judge said it was “a troubling case” and listed the initial grooming, the long duration of abuse and the “very substantial” effect on the girl as aggravating factors.
“She missed out on a lot of her childhood due to the offence,” he said.
While the man was remorseful, Skowronski said he “can’t give back three years of a young girl’s life” and “can’t give back her innocence.”