Convicted child molester gets 30 months
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, May 11, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A former Inuvik man has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for a sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy dating back nearly 37 years.
David Button, 69, who had been living in Salmon Arm, B.C., was handed his punishment by Judge Karan Shaner in Yellowknife's NWT Supreme Court May 7. He was charged in 2013 with indecent assault for grabbing the boy's genitals while giving him a driving lesson in Inuvik in 1978. There is a publication ban on any evidence that could identify the victim.
Shaner told Button he had robbed the victim of his teenage years and exploited his position of trust.
Court heard that a then 32-year-old Button, a guidance counsellor at the Inuvik high school, was teaching the youth how to drive while the boy's father was receiving cancer treatment down south. Shaner said Button was friends with the victim's parents. She said while the boy was driving Button reached over, locked the driver's side door, opened the boy's pants, grabbed his genitals, then pulled his own pants open, exposing his genitals and pulled the victim's head toward them.
Button then lowered his own head toward the victim's genitals and told him he was going to teach him how to be a man, Shaner said. The boy managed to stop the vehicle and put it in park before exiting. The assault lasted about a minute and a half, Shaner said, but left the boy in pain for some 10 days. Shaner described the victim as a hyper-vigilant parent and unable to leave his children with a babysitter because of what happened to him. The judge pointed out that Button has little to no remorse for his crime and has not admitted responsibility for it.
Shaner said Button is not a typical sex offender, noting that he is married, has a business with his wife and has a master's degree as well as a PhD. She also told the court she is aware that his first two years were spent in an orphanage, something he says negatively affects him to this day, adding he suffers from tremors that he says have gotten worse since he has been in custody.
Button, who remained in the prisoner's box for the sentencing showed little emotion. Button has been in custody at the North Slave Correctional Centre (NSCC) since his conviction March 5. He will get credit for three months he spent in custody which will be deducted from his sentence.
