Yellowknife man sentenced for sexual assault of 13-year-old

Warning: This story contains details that may be disturbing to anyone who has experienced​ ​​​sexual assault or knows someone affected by it. 

A Yellowknife man was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2021.

Bradley Storm Beaulieu, 26, appeared in a Yellowknife courtroom via video from an Alberta prison where he's serving unrelated sentences for impaired driving offences.

This week, the court heard the facts of Beaulieu's sexual assault case. He pleaded guilty last fall. The victim's name and any information that could identify her are under a publication ban.

Beaulieu, then 22, first met the victim at a Yellowknife gas station in the summer of 2021, and they connected on social media.

The girl told him that she was 13 years old, but Beaulieu pursued her anyway. 

He asked her to come to his house and offered to pay her $100. She went over, and Beaulieu had sex with her. The girl wanted to leave, but Beaulieu didn't stop. The girl could not legally consent regardless, because of her age. The court heard that she was scared and didn't know what to do. 

After RCMP charged Beaulieu, the girl was prepared to testify, but on the morning she was set to appear in court, Beaulieu pleaded guilty.

Crown prosecutor Morgan Fane said the girl's aunt characterized her niece's experience as "a life sentence" that will affect her for the rest of her days.

The Crown asked the court for a four- to-five year sentence for the sexual assault, to be served as soon as his current sentences end.

Fane said his proposed sentence was "restrained," taking into account that Beaulieu was a young adult when he committed the crime, but also "denunciatory of the abhorrent conduct." 

A pre-sentencing Gladue report revealed that Beaulieu had a difficult childhood. He was mostly raised by his grandparents, who survived residential school. His parents drank and he experienced family violence. He lost a close friend to suicide.

But Beaulieu's lawyer, Jay Bran, said his client is working on himself in prison. He said Beaulieu got his GED, and he's become a skilled carpenter. Bran added that Beaulieu has taken nearly two dozen courses in prison related to drugs and alcohol.  

"This bodes well for his eventual return to the community," said Bran.

The defence agreed that Beaulieu's sentence should be served consecutively, but asked for one in the range of 2.5 to three years.

Delivering the 3.5-year sentence, Justice Shannon Smallwood recognized Beaulieu's Indigenous identity and the traumatic effects of colonialism on generations of his family. 

She also said that the sexual assault of a child is a particularly egregious offence, and that it is important for the sentence to be a denunciation of that crime. She said the maximum sentence for a crime of this nature is 14 years.

Smallwood had to consider the impact on Beaulieu of adding a years-long sentence on top of the ones he's currently serving for the impaired driving offences. She said the sentence should not be "unduly harsh or crushing" to Beaulieu.

Beaulieu had 638 days left in his impaired driving sentences as of Thursday. Smallwood decided that he would begin his new 3.5-year prison term as soon as the current sentences end.

Beaulieu is also required to provide DNA, and will be banned from using firearms and working or volunteering with children for several years following his release.

For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. ​​If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.