Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 29/98) - Jacob Klassen has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a series of sexual offences involving minors between 1993 and 1996.

NWT Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler made the ruling in Hay River last Tuesday.

In March, a jury found Klassen guilty of seven sexual offences against young girls. They ranged from isolated incidents of fondling to repeated acts of intercourse.

"I note that these offences were of an insidious nature," Schuler said. "They were perpetrated on very young, vulnerable and impressionable girls ... I heard from one of the mothers about her daughters having nightmares about the accused and one talking about suicide.

"Some of the girls are having problems trusting men, some are receiving counselling. All of these are difficulties that none of these girls or their families should have had to suffer, and all are, unfortunately, predictable as the result of sexual assault, particularly where the assault is committed by an adult on a child."

Klassen, a 59-year-old former Enterprise councillor and businessman, maintained his innocence throughout his trial.

A psychiatric assessment concluded that Klassen, having denied his guilt, presents a risk of offending again.

"Nothing this court can do can heal the trauma or remove the pain caused to the victims. We can only hope that time and counselling and their own strength, with help from those close to them, will assist them in dealing with what happened to them," Schuler said.

"One of the terrible consequences of this type of offence committed by a person like Mr. Klassen is that it makes it harder for us as a society, as a community, to trust those that we would normally trust with our children."

Schuler chose not to make Klassen ineligible for parole, however. Instead, she decided to leave the matter to parole authorities.