A former Yellowknife man has been declared a dangerous offender and imprisoned for 14 years to be followed by ten years of long-term supervision after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Hay River in 2014.
Cody Durocher, 34, was handed his punishment in Supreme Court in Yellowknife Tuesday.
Court heard he attacked the girl in an apartment unit at the Hay River high rise after supplying her with alcohol.
It was the latest in a string of sexual assaults Durocher had committed over just a few years.
Following the sexual assault, the 13-year-old was jailed overnight by RCMP because she had breached her court-ordered curfew.
RCMP in the Northwest Territories have jailed at least two sexual assault victims in just the past few years including a woman in Yellowknife in 2017.
Court heard that Durocher has struggled during his incarceration in Alberta where he has been placed in solitary confinement several times for months in total.
Advocates say that research shows that solitary confinement does not work and does more harm than good in terms of rehabilitating prisoners.
Durocher was also reprimanded in prison for refusing to stop tattooing other inmates and himself, something forbidden in correctional institutions in Canada.
Court also heard he was suspended from three prison programs, one of them specifically designed for Indigenous sexual offenders.
He was kicked out, in part, for being disruptive during group sessions.
Court also heard that Durocher has been declared by doctors to be mentally fit.
He has been traumatized by several incidents in his life including the death of his father from cancer and the suicide of two uncles.
But court also heard that Durocher has not put in the effort needed to rehabilitate himself as a sexual offender
Part of the reason it took so long to finally sentence Durocher is because of the drawn out dangerous offender hearing.
His lawyer had asked for him to be declared a long-term offender which is less serious than dangerous offender status.
What happens to him now in terms of his eventual release from a southern prison is up to Corrections Canada and the National Parole Board.
It’s likely that when released from prison, Durocher will end up in a half-way house and from there he could be granted some sort of day parole.
Either way he will be 61-years-old when the sentence imposed Tuesday officially comes to an end.
