P.E.I. truck driver to continue working with ankle monitor after sexually assaulting child
Mitchell John Millar’s sentence recommended by both his lawyer and the Crown
WARNING: This story contains descriptions of child sex abuse. Resources and supports for anyone who has experienced sexual violence can be found at the bottom of this story.
A Charlottetown man will spend the next two years under house arrest after sexually assaulting a child, but the terms of the sentence will let him continue working as a truck driver around the Maritimes to support his family.
Mitchell John Millar, 35, was sentenced earlier this month in Summerside. That's after the judge took an adjournment to contemplate her decision on the joint sentencing recommendation put forward by Millar's lawyer and the Crown prosecutor.
"A joint submission should not be rejected lightly," Judge Krista MacKay told the court.
CBC News is withholding details including the timing, location and circumstances of the crime to protect the identity of the victim, who was under the age of 12 at the time of the assault.
The incident is not connected to Millar's work as a truck driver.
Reported to social worker
According to the agreed statement of facts read in court on April 23, the child was known to Millar and the crime happened when they were alone.
The victim told police Millar put his hand up the child's shorts. Millar then moved the child's underwear and began rubbing their genitals.
The child later told police they were too young to understand what was happening to them at the time, so they "just sat there" while Millar touched them.
The victim and another minor later reported the sexual assault to a Child and Family Services social worker. That person relayed the allegation to the RCMP for investigation.
Millar was originally charged with both sexual interference and sexual assault, but the interference charge was stayed in exchange for his guilty plea to the sexual assault.
Joint submission for 'abhorrent' crime
At the sentencing hearing on April 23, Crown prosecutor Colin Trewin called Millar's sexual assault of the child "abhorrent" and "deeply offensive to the public conscience."
Millar's lawyer, Simon Frizzell, spoke about Millar's upbringing, which he characterized as "short of pleasant" — an absent father, an abusive stepfather and past struggles with mental health and addictions.
The court also heard Millar responded well to therapy and treatment programs in the past, having served eight months on a drug trafficking charge without going on to use the substances involved since then.
Frizzell and Trewin put forward a joint recommendation of two years less a day of house arrest. That would allow Millar to continue working to support his spouse and her five children; he is the father of three of them.
Frizzell said the family would surely slip into poverty without Millar's income.
Millar will be wearing an electronic ankle monitor that tracks his movements, and will have to stay at home when not working.
A joint submission should not be rejected lightly.— Provincial court Judge Krista MacKay
He told the court he works as a truck driver and goes to Halifax at least five days a week, as well as making an occasional trip to New Brunswick. He leaves his home early in the morning and arrives back late in the evening.
That schedule is what gave MacKay pause.
She pondered whether the sentence was truly punitive if Millar was off travelling the region in a truck. MacKay also asked the Crown prosecutor if he had known the extent of Millar's daily off-Island travel when signing onto the joint recommendation for house arrest.
Trewin told Judge MacKay he had not been aware of those specifics, but he still believed the circumstances made it appropriate for Millar to serve his time in the community rather than behind bars.
Under Canadian law, judges are asked to accept joint submissions unless doing so would bring the justice system into disrepute or be against the public interest.
MacKay told the court that sets a high bar for rejecting a joint proposal, and she needed some time before making a decision.
'Not contrary to public interest'
The judge returned on May 2 to say that rejecting joint submissions is rare, and the circumstances under which a judge can do so have been laid out by the Supreme Court of Canada.
MacKay said it's not about whether she personally believes the sentence is fit.
"I was quite concerned … there were facts unknown to counsel and not considered," she told the court, but ultimately, she said she had decided to accept the recommendation.
"I am satisfied that the joint recommendation is consistent with and not contrary to the public interest," she said.
MacKay pointed out that the length of the house arrest sentence — two years less a day — is more time than Millar would be sentenced to if a jail sentence were imposed.
Millar will have to provide a sample of his DNA, he can't own weapons for 10 years, and he will be a registered sex offender for 20 years.
There are resources and supports available to anyone who has experienced sexual violence:
- Victim Services P.E.I. / Queens and Kings County: 902-368-4582; Prince County: 902-888-8218
- Rise P.E.I. / Phone or text: 902-218-6143
- P.E.I. Rape and Sexual Assault Centre / Call: 902-368-8055 or 1-888-368-8055
- Here is a list of sexual assault centres, crisis lines and support services elsewhere in Canada.
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