WARNING: This story contains graphic details of child sexual abuse and can affect those who have experienced or have been affected by it.
An Ottawa man who took advantage of the children who had access through the teaching and work of youth justice in the capital, among others, has received a “almost unprecedented” sentence of 13.5 years in prison for their “extremely varied and atrocious” crimes, a judge has governed.
Kevan Henshaw, 33, declared himself guilty of 22 charges for crimes he committed for two years, including sexual interference and invitation to the sexual touch that involves children under 16, making material of child sexual abuse, possession of child sexual abuse material and more. Last year they had accused him of more than 70 crimes.
The judge of the Court of Ontario, Trevor Brown, issued the sentence on August 25, after a sentence hearing was held in May, where painful impact statements of the victim were heard in the courts. None of the more than 30 victims named in the case can be identified due to a prohibition of routine publication that protects them.
The victim’s impact statements came mainly from parents and other relatives of the children that Henshaw met as an educational assistant, and the parents of other children who cut on social networks.
The crown had requested an 18 -year prison sentence, while the defense argued for nine years.
There are four series of victims:
- Three children he met in a secondary school and went out of school, making challenges and jokes that sometimes made children feel uncomfortable. Henshaw worked as a casual educational assistant with the School Board of the Ottawa-Carleton district and the Ottawa Catholic School Board.
- Hundreds of Henshaw children met on social networks, where he pretended to be a teenage girl with whom he had really been a friend. He would promise to send intimate images of women who had found the children online, and asked them to send sexually explicit videos of themselves performing several acts in return. Eleven of the victims were from Ottawa and 12 were from New Scotland, where Henshaw grew and worked as a camp advisor.
- Ten children who were detained at the William E. Hay Youth Detention Center, where Henshaw was a youth justice worker. Henshaw secret them in the search and shower area. He ordered the children to undress and raise their arms and feet, move typical of strips searches. Some videos show children’s genitals before entering the shower.
- All unidentified children represented in hundreds of photos and videos representing their sexual abuse, which Henshaw had found online and saved. Among them were Henshaw videos filmed children between six and 12 years old, showering in the change room of a community pool.
‘Systemic problems to protect young people at risk’
In their impact statements in May, all parents said their children had changed. One was faster to get angry, and others have retired from friends and family and attending school.
Two of the parents (a father and a mother) mentioned that they themselves were sexually abused when they were children, the mother by a supply teacher in her school. The father who was abused made his statement through a video message. “Knowing that … [my son] You can have these ghosts, these painful memories that you will never escape, it is heartbreaking to know that this is probably what could happen, “he said.
Another mother said her son had reported an inappropriate behavior of another educational assistant before Henshaw’s crimes.
“There seems to be systemic problems to safeguard young people at risk of perverts, if I can be so direct,” he wrote in a statement read aloud by the assistant prosecutor of the Crown Matthew Brown.
She was the woman whose complaint before the child’s help society about Henshaw spent an inappropriate amount of time with children outside the school finally took the police to the door of Henshaw.
“I thank God that he was so persistent that day, as if it were not for my state of alert and constant interrogation … about Mr. Henshaw and the suspicions of his actions, he could have been abusing children while adults around him did not give me the mind,” he wrote.
Former friend Henshaw pretended to be on social networks for Bishh’s children addressed Court and Henshaw directly through a video link. “… It was the face that was used behind a profile to attract people, young men and children, whom you were pointing. It was like making my legs tear me under me,” he said.
“I felt dirty, as if I had done something to harm these children.”
Only a child presented a victim’s impact statement
Perhaps the most powerful statement, the last one, came from one of the children himself: a former inmate of William E. had to be fulfilled there when he was 13 years old. He was filmed in secret being wanted by Henshaw, and wrote that Henshaw also asked him invasive questions about his sexual and appointments.
“I understand that my behavior brought me William E. there. The boy wrote in a statement read by Brown.
The institutions failed here. The prison failed, the school board failed. They could not protect the children with whom they were entrusted, and could not provide impact statements of the victims.– Prosecutor to the Sonia Beauchamp Assistant Crown
“While I have been fighting with my own rape for Kevan, I can’t help thinking about all the other children with whom he took advantage of. I think the anger I feel about it is the most difficult to handle. I am very angry to think about all the children who strategically approached so that I can abuse them … I am sure there are many who do not express themselves here because they are too fucking to move forward and I am thinking about the children
Judge Brown told the Court in August that children are known for maintaining their feelings and trying not to show vulnerability. But while that response is appropriate for development for their age, they will be persecuted by it.
“The sad reality is that … for these teenagers, there will be no removals of these events until they can face them,” Brown said.
“What you made will chase these young people in the future, and their impact will sometimes feel and places that cannot be predicted.”
The impact statements of the victim who did not appear, according to prosecutors were also notable.
“The institutions failed here. [youth] The prison failed, the school board failed. They could not protect the children with whom they were entrusted to them, and they could not provide victims’ impact statements, “said the lawyer of the Sonia Beauchamp Crown Assistant to the Court.
“I will take every treatment path,” says Henshaw
Later at the audience, Henshaw read a letter to the court, addressing each set of their victims and apologizing to them, their families and their own family and friends.
“I am in a demographic group that is often offended again, but know that I will take all the treatment roads and I will dedicate myself to every opportunity to overcome the probabilities. Because I feel it. And I want to live the rest of my life that makes it already you and every one of the victims that I have damaged,” he said.
“Will” find a way of working against “the” black market “of child pornography” that destroys lives, “he said.
Henshaw decided to declare himself innocent a couple of months after he was accused, his lawyer, Maggie McCann, told the court. He then shared the password to his computer with the police and gave a statement incriminating.
His high probability of recidivism does not take into account its opening, remorse and sincere desire for rehabilitation, he argued.
More than two years were deducted from their sentence for the time that has passed in jail so far. It will be included in the Registry of Sex Criminals for Life, and you have to present your DNA for a National Data Bank.
By releasing, it will be prohibited from having weapons for life, and attending schools, playgrounds, swimming pools and other similar spaces where children meet, among other conditions.
