A 41-year-old Bowen Island man who sexually abused both his stepdaughter and another 11-year-old girl has been sent to jail for two and a half years.
The abuse came to light last summer, after the man sexually touched the 11-yearold girl - a friend of the family - as she was sitting next to him in a van.
At the time, a group of adults and children were travelling back to the man's home from a party when he started touching her in a sexual manner. The girl struggled away from him and tried to get the attention of her mother, who was also in the van.
When they reached their destination, the girl ran trembling and crying to tell her mother what had happened.
On the same night, the man went into his stepdaughter's room and began to sexually assault her, telling her not to tell anyone.
The next morning, on a drive back to the ferry, the mother of the first victim told the man's common-law wife what had happened in the van.
The wife went home and confronted the man, telling him to get out of the house.
Eventually her daughter disclosed that he had been sexually abusing her for six to eight months and that she had fought and kicked him to defend herself.
The man - who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims - eventually admitted to his crimes.
A pre-sentence report indicated the man had shown remorse and took responsibility for his actions.
A psychologist noted the man was preoccupied with sex and had a "confused sense of sexual boundaries," likely stemming from being sexually abused as a child himself.
The psychologist deemed the man a moderate risk for future offences if he had unsupervised access to young girls.
Judge William Rodgers of the North Vancouver provincial court sentenced the man to jail. He also banned the man from being in areas frequented by young people for seven years and placed his name on the sexual offender registry.
