A serial pedophile from North Vancouver has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to two sex charges involving a young boy.
Judge Joanne Challenger sentenced Don James Munro, 46, on July 14 in North Vancouver provincial court for invitation to sexual touching and providing explicit material to a person under 18 following two incidents that happened in the fall of 2014.
Munro met the 10-year-old victim and befriended his mother in January and soon after began grooming the youth while offering his services as a tutor.
Just eight months earlier, he was on parole for a series of sex assaults on young boys and was still facing a 10-year ban on having contact with anyone under the age of 16.
When the province’s teachers went on strike in the fall of 2014, Munro had the boy in his home once a week for tutoring, although little studying was done.
“During each of the tutoring sessions, the offender masturbated in front of the child and asked the child to masturbate in front of him,” Judge Joanne Challenger wrote in her ruling. “The offender attempted to bribe the child to masturbate in front of him by telling him he would not have to study. The child declined to do so. The offender also exposed the child to adult pornography on the Internet.”
While getting a ride for a tutoring session, the victim got a look at Munro’s credit card and learned he had been lying about his name. When the boy told his mother, they quickly discovered Munro’s criminal history and called police.
In 2008, he was sentenced to four and a half years on six counts of sexual interference and sexual assault involving three boys. He had met his victims while volunteering through a youth mentoring organization and similarly befriended the children’s mothers.
The RCMP arrested Munro on Dec. 26, 2014 and he has been held in custody since. Munro pleaded guilty to the offences on Sept. 17, 2015.
The crimes had an immediate and lasting impact, causing the victim to withdraw from his peers, lose interest in his school work and become dishonest and defiant, the judge wrote in her ruling.
“Since the arrest of the accused, he has attended counselling, but continues to be emotionally fragile and is anxious about the offender being released from custody. His mother expects that the conduct of the offender will have a lasting negative impact on the emotional well-being of her son,” Challenger said.
Munro was highly capable and meticulous when it came to manipulating his victims and their parents, Challenger said, noting the child and his mother were in no way responsible for what happened.
“Mr. Munro had many months in which to reconsider his conduct, to apply the techniques learned in his treatment, and to withdraw from contact with the victim and his mother. There is nothing to suggest his judgment was impaired by mental health, cognitive challenges, or addiction. There is nothing in the evidence to suggest that he did anything other than pursue, and with great dedication, the satisfaction of his deviant desires. Mr. Munro is fully responsible for his offending conduct,” she wrote.
Because of time already served Munro is expected to remain behind bars for another four years. He also faces a lifetime ban on attending places youth are known to congregate in and must register as a sex offender for life.
