Man sentenced to eight years for sexual assaults on granddaughter

REGINA — A Saskatchewan man is heading to federal prison for eight years for repeatedly sexually assaulting and impregnating his 13-year-old granddaughter.

According to court documents, the assaults started when the girl was 10 years old, and she estimates she was assaulted between 75 and 100 times.

Court heard the sexual assaults continued until the girl gave birth to a baby boy in spring 2014 at the hospital in Wynyard, Sask.

The girl testified her grandfather told her to lie and say another man had forced her to have sex, but about a month later she filed a report with the Wadena RCMP saying he had fathered the child.

That was later confirmed by a DNA test.

Police put out a warrant for the man’s arrest, but he managed to evade police for about a year before being arrested in 2015.

He eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault.

In her victim impact statement, the girl said her childhood had been taken away from her, that she suffered from anxiety and depression and had developed an eating disorder.

The Crown asked for a nine-year sentence but the defence said it should be less, noting the man had himself been sexually assaulted.