A 32-year-old Port Alberni man has been sentenced to six months in prison and three years probation for sex crimes against a girl under the age of 16.
According to provincial prosecutor Gordon Baines, Judge T. Dohm netted out the sentence to Shaun Pater on Friday, Jan 27, in Port Alberni provincial court.
Pater pled guilty to one count of sexual interference. Other charges including sexual assault, breach of peace bond and obstruction of justice were stayed.
In addition, Pater will have to give a DNA sample to the criminal data bank, as well as register as an offender under the sex offender information registry act for 20 years.
Pater's sentence was a joint submission between the prosecution and defense. He will likely serve his sentence at the Wilkinson Road correctional facility in Victoria.
In a separate matter involving Pater, the crown stayed a charge involving uttering threats against a probation officer. Pater is to have no contact with the officer when he finishes his jail sentence.
Pater's sentence stems from an incident that occurred on Jan. 17 of this year.
According to Baines, Pater picked up an 18-year-old male friend and his girlfriend who is under age 16, and drove them back to his residence and left them there.
At the residence, the 18-year-old and his girlfriend had sex. Afterward, the boyfriend told the girl he wanted her have sex with Pater. The girl refused at first, but the boyfriend told her he loved her and wanted this so she relented and had sex with Pater, who just returned. Later, Pater drove the girl home.
On Jan. 22, the girl confided the incident to her grandmother, who immediately took her to police to tell what had happened.
Within an hour of the girl giving the statement, and with no prompting by police, the 18-year-old man arrived at the RCMP station and gave a statement in which he refuted everything his girlfriend just said, insisting that nothing happened between her and Pater.
Investigators re-interviewed the 18-year-old, who initially stuck to his statement. But investigators confronted him with two inconsistencies and the man capitulated.
The man admitted that the incident did happen, and also admitted that Pater coached him on what to say before giving his first statement to police.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
Edited to reflect exact charge.