Bruce County man gets 11 years for confining family, other offences

The offender conducted a 'reign of terror,' the judge said.

Article content A man who unlawfully confined his young family for up to 17 years, and who the Crown said used Holy Scripture “as a sword” was sentenced in an Owen Sound courtroom to 11 years in prison Thursday. The 51-year-old cannot be identified and details must be omitted to comply with a publication ban imposed in the Superior Court of Justice to protect the family’s identity. With enhanced credit for time served, six years remain of his sentence.

Recommended Videos Justice Gisele Miller also imposed a 15-year common-law peace bond with terms requiring the offender to have nothing to do with or be anywhere near his former wife and children. She also issued DNA, weapons prohibition and gun forfeiture orders. She said she’d never had a case with facts like these.

The offender testified he believed he was entitled to isolate his family from any outside help and to “bend his family to his will and isolate them from the community,” Miller said. “He does not accept that he has any problems that require any kind of programming or counselling” and the offender’s remarks demonstrated his lack of insight, Miller said. Among his 13 convictions was one for sexual assault involving his wife.

He will be added to the sexual offender registry and must comply with the Sexual Offender Information Registration Act for 20 years. The offender, with his now-former wife and their five kids, lived in Bruce County for most of the period of their confinement. He received a disability pension with additional benefits for their child dependents.

He covered grass in the yard with stone dust and restricted the kids’ access to outdoors. They could go briefly into the yard only with a north wind, one at a time, after a neighbour complained they never went outside. No toys or bikes were permitted outside.

The kids were not permitted to touch the ground. No one could leave home without the offender and he controlled with whom they could speak, Miller recounted. There were “daily devotions” led by the offender, sometimes lasting hours.

Family members needed permission to use the bathroom during his sermons. The children were confined to certain areas while his wife made dinner. No one could eat before the offender.

He enforced this through tirades and unpredictability, which left the family feeling they could be punished at any moment, Miller said. Cameras monitored the kids in the yard and were used to examine passers-by. He ordered his wife to photograph the kids outside in case he needed to show child welfare authorities.

Windows had to be covered so no one could see inside the home. Increasingly, the offender added new restrictions. He used “intimidation and physical violence” to control his wife’s movements and her ability to leave him.

He was protecting her from “rape culture,” he told her when they were dating. Eventually, he “co-opted” his eldest son and gave him more freedom, to enforce his rules over the other children. He had disputes with neighbours and other community members, Miller said.

He developed fixations on perceived enemies, stalked and threatened them, she said. Assistant Crown attorney Meredith Gardiner called for 11 1⁄2 years in custody and a 25-year peace bond. Aggravating factors included the offender’s breach of trust against his wife and family, which prioritized his sense of “superiority” over their welfare.

“And the Holy Scripture, which should have been a