A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison for a sexual assault that took place in Clyde River, Nunavut, in August.
Mark Paneak had previously pleaded guilty to the charges of sexual assault, resisting arrest and breaching his probation.
Justice Earl Johnson heard the sentencing arguments and delivered a sentence at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Thursday.
He said he's issued many sentenced in connection to sexual assault charges, but this particular sentence was rightly longer than what's typical in Nunavut.
Johnson agreed with the joint proposal put forth by the lawyers for both the Crown and defence that called for a five-year prison term for the sexual assault, with concurrent sentences of 45 days for resisting arrest and 30 days for breaching probation.
He said he believed the joint submission did a good job of balancing the seriousness of the offence with the amount of help Paneak needs.
He said he hoped with the amount of time Paneak will spend in prison in southern Canada, he will be able to take advantage of rehabilitation programs, which are more readily available in penitentiaries there than in the North.
He acknowledged the assessment by a clinical psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, which determined Paneak had an intellectual disability that gave him "very limited appreciation of appropriate boundaries."
He also considered how the incident took place; how Paneak pursued the woman after he knew she was trying to get away and how was very aggressive with her.
"When I read the victim impact statement it's very clear this poor woman has just been destroyed and... she'll probably never get back to normal," he said.
After credit for time already served — Paneak has been in custody since the incident — he will spend just less than four years in a penitentiary.
He has two years after his release to pay a $600 victim surcharge.
The woman did not know Paneak as she was not from the community, which prompted the RCMP to issue a release detailing ways women can protect themselves from attackers.
Her identity is protected under a publication ban.