Judge passes light sentence for child predator, nail bomber because he’s Indigenous

An Indigenous man who groomed and raped a 12-year-old girl, forced her into child pornography, and planted a bomb under her mother's car has received a reduced sentence due to his aboriginal heritage.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

An Indigenous man who groomed and raped a 12-year-old girl, forced her into child pornography, and planted a nail bomb under her mother's car has received a reduced sentence due to his aboriginal heritage.

The disturbing Alberta court decision was handed down on September 15.

Justice J.D. Williams was tasked with sentencing RJM—identified only by his initials due to a publication ban—after he pleaded guilty to six counts, including assault with a weapon, uttering death threats, sexual assault, dangerous driving, fleeing police and obstructing justice.

In his decision, the Calgary judge reduced a 10-year sentence by two years, bringing it to "single digits," for a man who admitted to terrorizing and repeatedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he met online.

The man, identified only as RJM, is of Cree heritage on his mother's side. He met the victim, identified only as A.B., on Instagram.

The crimes, which involved repeated physical, sexual and psychological violence against A.B., spanned from May to September 2023. A.B. turned 13 during the ordeal.

Court documents detail how RJM, knowing A.B.'s true age by early September, continued the abuse, including penetrative sex without protection, recording child pornography, threatening to kill her family, and placing an explosive underneath the victim's mother's car.

"A.B. believed herself to be in a relationship with an older man who loved her, but instead she was tied to an older man who wished to dominate her," the judge wrote in his decision.

"He," the judge wrote, referring to RJM, "ensured his hold over her was complete by threatening not only her but her mother and friends and proved to her that he would carry out such threats—by at one point creating a nail bomb and placing it under her mother's car, and on another occasion sending a video of him standing outside her mother's home."

He also threatened to kill the girl's mother and her cat.

He called the victim a "dead slut" and told her mother, A.C., "was going to get hit too."

He told A.B. he would put a bullet in her head and said there was a bomb that would total A.C.'s car.

A makeshift nail bomb had been placed under the mother's car and "exploded," court records show.

It's unclear how much damage the nail bomb caused, but it violated RJM's release conditions prohibiting contact with the victim or her family.

Other violations included RJM sending the victim and her family videos of him standing outside their property.

These were all aggravating factors in RJM's sentencing.

However, these were offset by mitigating circumstances judges must consider when determining whether the Gladue principles apply to a criminal case.

The Gladue principle is a sentencing concept in Canadian law, rooted in the Supreme Court's 1999 R v. Gladue decision, which requires courts to consider the "unique systemic background and life experiences of Indigenous offenders when deciding on sentences or bail."

It stems from section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code, which mandates judges to explore all available sanctions other than imprisonment, with "particular attention to the circumstances of Indigenous people."

In RJM's case, a Gladue report highlighted his mother's residential school experience, family history of substance abuse, and his own exposure to violence and addiction.

The judge weighed this against the severity of the crimes but applied the reduction, noting it as a mandatory consideration.