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Former Yk resident guilty of molestation

Terrence McEachern
Northern News Services
Published Friday, March 25, 2011

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 56-year-old former Yellowknife resident shook his head in disbelief after being found guilty in Supreme Court on Wednesday of molesting three female children more than 15 years ago.

Justice John Vertes told the court he found Gordon Randolph Larsen's account of his encounters with the three victims to be "unbelievable." He found him guilty of three counts of sexual interference for touching the women for a sexual purpose between Aug. 15, 1989 and Feb. 28, 1994, in Yellowknife.

Vertes ordered a judicial stay on three counts of sexual assault. After hearing the verdict, the three victims all broke down crying in the courtroom, surrounded by family and friends.

Over the two-day trial, the court heard testimony from the victims as well as the accused. The first victim, now 30, testified that Larsen, a friend of the family, was living in the family's basement. She said he would come into her bedroom late at night when she was around eight years old and molest her while her parents were asleep.

The family moved from their downtown residence into a trailer at Northland Trailer Park years later. Larsen wasn't living with the family at that time, but would stay over after nights of heavy drinking with the girl's father.

The younger sister, now 26, testified about two incidents, the first where Larsen molested her during the day in the trailer when no one was home and another incident when she was alone with him in his blue truck.

Larsen was also friends with the parents of the third victim. Now 27, she told the court the only incident with Larsen was when she was nine years old and woke up one night after having a nightmare. Larsen was staying with the family and slept on their livingroom couch. The victim testified Larsen told her to climb into his sleeping bag and lie next to him on the couch. Once inside, she testified Larsen groped her for several minutes, and then told her to go back to her room.

Nearly 12 years later, after talking to both daughters and the mother of the third victim, the sisters' mother filed a compliant with the Yellowknife RCMP in April 2010.

Larsen flatly denied all of the allegations when he took the stand.

Despite the many years that passed between when the offences occurred and when the complaint was finally filed with the RCMP, Vertes noted that, although there was the opportunity, there was no evidence of collaboration in the victims' testimony.

Larsen's criminal record, which stretches back 35 years with 13 convictions, was read to the court by Crown prosecutor Marc Lecorre on Tuesday. The convictions involve theft, impaired driving, assault causing bodily harm, possession of stolen property, possession of a weapon and robbery.

However, the court heard none of his previous offences involved sexual assaults.

Larsen, who was living in Haines Junction, Yukon, at the time of his arrest, was taken into custody Wednesday when Vertes revoked his bail.

He is scheduled to be back in Supreme Court on April 11 at 10 a.m. for sentencing. For each count he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

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