Jail for repeat child predator
Hall Beach man declared dangerous offender
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Monday, April 14, 2014
IQALUIT
"Be assured, sir, that if you do not change your ways, the door which is now open a crack will indeed be shut and locked and your chance of freedom will be nothing but a dream."
These were among several strong statements made by Nunavut Justice Bonnie Tulloch while sentencing repeat sexual predator Simeonie Issigaitok at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit on March 28.
Tulloch declared Issigaitok a dangerous offender, a status he will live with for the rest of his life.
Issigaitok, 60, of Hall Beach, was also sentenced to serve 4.5 years for two charges of sexual touching of a minor on Nov. 2, 2011. He will now serve two years in a southern penitentiary in addition to the 876 days he has spent in remand since being arrested for the crimes.
After serving that sentence, Issigaitok will be put under "strict supervision" for six years, during which time he will not be allowed to return to his home territory.
A dangerous offender status is one placed on an individual whose likeliness to re-offend outweighs his chance for rehabilitation. Issigaitok has 20 prior convictions for sexual offences involving children between the ages of six and 13 years old.
He has previously served two penitentiary sentences - receiving a three-year sentence in 1997 and a two-year sentence in 2006.
Because of this history, along with the fact he has "shown little insight into the consequences that his actions have had on these very vulnerable individuals," Tulloch said she has "no difficulty in declaring Simeonie Issigaitok a dangerous offender."
Unlike some dangerous offender convictions, Issigaitok's sentence does not include an indeterminate term of incarceration.
Both Crown and defence lawyers agreed to Issigaitok's dangerous offender status, avoiding a full hearing.
Crown attorney Barry McLaren told Nunavut News/North that Issigaitok's dangerous offender status means he received a much heavier sentence than he otherwise would have for his crimes in 2011, and that if Issigaitok ever commits another sexual crime in his life he will likely be put away for a very long time.
Three Nunavummiut have been declared dangerous offenders since 1999.
In deciding the sentence, Tulloch said she concluded that being banned from Hall Beach and Iglulik and strict supervision for at least six years after being released from prison should adequately protect the public since most of Issigaitok's past offences were crimes of opportunity.
As is his right as an aboriginal offender, Issigaitok's troubled past was under consideration during sentencing for his most recent crimes.
Issigaitok was born in an outpost camp outside of Iglulik. He was sexually assaulted by one of his teachers in Iglulik at a young age. Later, he attended residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, where he was subjected to further sexual assaults.
When he was 15 or 16 years old, Issigaitok moved to Hall Beach and lived off and on with his parents. At 16 years old, he was sexually assaulted once again by one of his co-workers at the DEW line site in Hall Beach.
"You know very well that being sexually assaulted at a young age causes serious invisible damage that is often catastrophic," Tulloch said to Issigaitok on March 28. "You know it because you are a living example of what these kinds of things can do to a person's life.
"I hope that by the time you are released from custody, you will fully understand what you have put these children through. You have scarred them for life and robbed them of their childhood.
"It is time to stop. It is time to heal."
