.jpg;w=120;h=120;mode=crop){kind=avatar}
A Mission man who sexually assaulted a woman on a North Vancouver trail last year should go to jail, a Crown prosecutor urged.
Crown counsel Sean Harvey told a judge that Jairus-Paul Covacha Sacramento, 23, should spend between 90 and 120 days in jail for his actions and be placed on 18 months’ probation.
Harvey asked for the jail term during a sentencing hearing Nov. 27 in North Vancouver provincial court before Judge Joseph Galati.
The hearing follows a trial earlier this year where Sacramento was found guilty of sexual assault for grabbing a woman’s buttocks from behind as she walked along a trail in Lynn Valley.
The incident happened on Feb. 13, 2022. The victim, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, testified in the trial she was walking over the small bridge exiting the Varley Loop Trail near Rice Lake Road when a stranger approached her from behind and grabbed her buttocks and genital area.
Within 30 seconds of the assault, the victim testified she started recording video of her attacker as he tried to cover his face and walk away.
North Vancouver RCMP later released an image of Sacramento’s face, hoping it would result in tips from the public. He was arrested a month after the assault in Abbotsford, after two witnesses identified him after seeing news reports about the incident.
In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the victim said while some people might dismiss the assault as a “grope,” the incident has left her with severe psychological harm including sleeplessness, agoraphobia, nightmares and hyper vigilance around men.
“I suddenly found myself feeling fearful of all men. It took a significant amount of therapy to convince my brain that all not all men are dangerous,” she said.
The woman said she’s had to take time off work and has experienced panic attacks at night, thinking someone might break into her home and attack her.
“What Mr. Sacramento did is not OK,” she said. “It was criminal, and it was dehumanizing … a woman has the right to go for a walk in a beautiful park on a sunny day without having her body violated. Our bodies are not up for grabs.”
A pre-sentence report pointed to Sacramento “greatly minimizing his actions” and lacking understanding of the effects of his actions on the victim, said Harvey.
Sacramento maintained to pre-sentence report writers he “did not grab the victim but just tapped her on the butt” and “barely got a piece of it,” said Harvey.
Harvey said Sacramento had also considered how he could “pick up a chick” on the way home and had a line prepared, specifically, “'Excuse me. I thought you were my girlfriend.’”
“He believed that executed properly, his approach would have worked,” said Harvey.
Other comments that pointed to lack of insight included Sacramento declaring “’It’s not my fault if she was wearing revealing clothes,’” and suggesting, “The victim probably would have liked it if she was younger,” said Harvey.
A pre-sentence report put Sacramento at “moderate” risk to re-offend, said Harvey.
Mitigating factors are Sacramento’s lack of a criminal record and the fact he was only 22 at the time of the incident, said Harvey.
Harvey said Sacramento should still get a jail term, arguing he doesn’t have the right mindset for rehabilitation and that a “short sharp jail sentence” is needed for deterrence.
“Women need to feel safe walking on public trails in North Vancouver, and the sentence imposed today needs to be sufficient to prevent the accused and others from committing similar offences in the future,” he said.
Defence lawyer Ashleigh Singleton asked the judge for a conditional discharge, describing the sex assault as being “on the lower end of the scale.”
Singleton said a two-year probation with 50 hours of community work service and counselling orders should be sufficient. Singleton also asked the judge not to place Sacramento on the sex offender registry, which the prosecutor requested.
The judge is set to hand down his the sentence later this month, when Sacramento will also be sentenced for a gun offence of possessing a Glock handgun in a location where he was not permitted to have it.
