How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-Manitoba Foster Father

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Brandon, Canada, a foster father “has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after admitting to multiple sexual abuse charges involving two young children in his care.

The 38-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday for seven total offences. They include two counts each of sexual interference, distributing, and making child sexual abuse material involving two foster children. The seventh offence was possessing child sexual abuse material in which the children involved were not identifiable.

The man was a foster parent to three children and ran a daycare in the southwest Manitoba city with his common-law partner at the time.

He was charged in February 2025 with offences involving the two children, who were around one and six years old.

He pleaded guilty to all charges and can’t be named to protect the identity of the children.

“He abused and violated the most vulnerable victims imaginable in some of the most vile and intrusive ways,” Judge Patrick Sullivan said, reading his decision in Brandon provincial court Tuesday.

“The vulnerability of these children cannot be overstated. Their ages would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for them to understand, resist or speak out about what was happening to them.”

The man’s lawyer, Jennifer Janssens, was asking for a sentence of 16 to 18 years, while Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup had called for 25 years.

Sullivan sentenced the man to 25 years minus time served, totalling a credit of 725 days.

The man was arrested after the RCMP’s national child exploitation crime centre was alerted by Norwegian authorities that there might be ongoing sexual abuse involving children at a home and alerted the Brandon Police Service.

He was arrested at his home. Six children were at the residence at the time.
Police searched the home and recovered child sexual abuse materials, including multiple videos of the man sexually abusing the two foster children, along with several still photos.

It was determined the man possessed 127 other digital media files depicting unknown and unidentifiable children involved in abusive sexual acts, Sullivan said.

The judge described the offences as deeply disturbing, shocking and repugnant.

“The circulation of the videos and images of the assault online means victims may experience continuing trauma from the knowledge that their abuse is repeatedly viewed, shared and commodified by strangers indefinitely,” Sullivan said.

While there are no allegations involving children at the daycare, Sullivan said, the case will likely haunt those families forever because of their proximity to it.

In conversations with a Norwegian citizen who has also been arrested, the man self-identified as a pedophile and repeatedly showed enthusiasm for discussing and sharing child sexual abuse materials, Sullivan said in his decision.

“Comments in the text exchanges such as, ‘Just supporting my fellow pedos,’ belie a disturbing pride and exuberance for the behaviour [he] was engaging in,” the judge said.

The man had previously told the court his behaviour was motivated by a desire to catch child sexual offenders — something he also initially told police.

In his decision, Sullivan described the narrative as ridiculous, saying it’s impossible to reconcile the idea of catching sexual offenders by victimizing two foster children and sharing those materials.

The man told the court during sentencing arguments in May, “I am scared for my future and what’s going to happen, but I’ve done that to myself … I have no excuses.”

In his decision, Sullivan says the man has a long way to go before he fully understands why he engaged in this behaviour and accepts the full extent of his personal responsibility. He said the pre-sentence report indicated the man had taken marginal acceptance for his actions.

Speaking directly to the man, Sullivan told him, “I’m hopeful that you are able at some stage to come to understand what led to this moment.”

Brandon man sentenced to 25 years for sexual abuse of foster children
[CBC Lite 6/2/26 by Chelsea Kemp]

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