(CANADA)
CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) [Toronto, Canada]
July 21, 2023
By Madeleine Cummings
Brad Dahr pleaded guilty to sexual offences committed in 2020
WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.
A 56-year-old man who was a pastor in the east-central Alberta town of Vegreville from 2016 until 2020 will spend five years in prison after pleading guilty Friday morning to sexual offences.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Kevin Feth accepted a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence and sentenced Brad Dahr to four years in prison for sexual exploitation and one year for making child pornography.
According to an agreed statement of facts, the pastor ran a mental health outreach program for young adults and asked a teenage member of the church’s congregation in 2017 to co-preach a sermon series with him.
The teen confided in him about her mental health struggles and came to depend on him for help.
The pair exchanged more than 190,000 phone messages, which were not sexual, but in early 2020, Dahr began to think the two of them were attracted to each other. They started exchanging sexual messages and Dahr suggested they switch between messaging platforms to avoid being discovered.
Dahr had sex with the girl, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, and they exchanged intimate photos and videos of themselves. Sometimes Dahr made requests for what he wanted to see in her videos.
On October 31, 2020, other congregation members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church confronted him about what was going on.
In a resignation letter sent to church superiors, Dahr indicated he had had a sexually inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
A few weeks later, he told the teenager he was grieving about how things had turned out and sent instructions for her to delete media in their shared file-hosting account. The teen deleted all the intimate files, but subsequently recovered photos and videos from a folder of recently deleted items.
Crown prosecutor Britta Kristensen read aloud part of the young woman’s victim impact statement in an Edmonton courtroom on Friday.
The statement said her emotional and mental health was severely hurt by what happened and that she had blamed herself for it.
Her mother told the court Dahr manipulated her daughter into distancing herself from her parents.
The mother said she felt angry, repulsed, betrayed and guilty about what had happened. She encouraged Dahr to seek help.
“Please choose well, because we don’t want one more precious girl to suffer,” she told him.
Dahr’s lawyer, Will van Engen, said he has attended counselling.
The defence lawyer said Dahr has been a loving father, lost his career over what happened and shouldn’t be defined solely by the actions that brought him to court.
Addressing the court, Dahr repeatedly said, “I deserve this” and said he regrets what he did.
He spoke of his long-time wife, whom he betrayed, and his children, who were in the courtroom on Friday.
“I am grieved that I have shattered their trust and caused them many tears and great anxiety,” he said.
He said after what happened, he and his family had to arrange for their foster children to go to new homes.
“Their cries ring in my ears every single day,” he said.
Speaking to reporters outside court, the young woman said she was glad to see some form of justice but she believes the penalties for these offences should be much longer, since the repercussions affect victims for life.
She said her eyes have opened to the prevalence of sexual assault.
“While it’s closure for me for five years, it’s just nothing compared to the worldwide problem,” she said.
The young woman’s mother said she won’t be able to believe Dahr ever again and that his apologies meant nothing.
Dahr was originally charged with child luring and making sexually explicit material available to a child. Those charges have been withdrawn.
He also faced charges of sexual interference and voyeurism on another indictment. Those charges have been stayed.