Jesse James Aimee, the 29-year-old Sechelt man accused of several sex crimes and Internet luring of minors, has been found guilty on several charges.
Aimee was accused of sexual assault, sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching and Internet luring of three minors between 2006 and 2008. The jury delivered the verdicts on Wednesday night after a three-week long trial in Vancouver Supreme Court and three full days of deliberation.
Aimee faced an additional charge of Internet luring of a fourth minor he was not accused of assaulting and one count of obstruction of justice to which he already plead guilty.
Justice Fisher ordered an acquittal on one charge of invitation to sexual touching due to a lack of evidence, and the jury found Aimee not guilty on one charge of Internet luring of the minor he was not accused of having assaulted.
Due to mistaken information given to the Crown by a witness who was not revealed until midway through the trial, and a change in the age of consent by the federal government two years ago, Crown was forced to drop three of the charges related to one alleged victim.
"The charge of sexual touching of a person under the age of 14 no longer existed after May 1, 2008 so we, in effect, laid the wrong charge because that's the evidence we had at that point in the trial," said Crown counsel Trevor Cockfield. "We couldn't amend the charge because we would be amending it to an entirely new charge, and we can't do that."
In total, Aimee was found guilty of six charges and pled guilty to one. He was found not guilty of two charges and had three charges dropped.
None of the victims or alleged victims can be identified under a publication ban.
Aimee's defence counsel Alan Ip said his client was disappointed with the verdict and that it was too soon to say if he plans to file an appeal. If one is filed, it will be on the grounds of rulings in court during the trial and on the judge's instructions to the jury.
Aimee is now scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 27.
Cockfield said he is still doing research to determine what sentence he will request, but said it would be "federal time," meaning a minimum of two years.
In sentencing, Ip said he will ask the judge to consider Aimee's mental state and the 15 months Aimee has already spent in jail.
"Mr. Aimee didn't take reasonable steps to ascertain the victim's age. He didn't do it out of malice; he did it out of immaturity and foolishness," Ip said. "It's a question of how much jail time and whether he's served sufficient jail time for the offence he's committed and he's been convicted of."
Both Cockfield and Ip offered praise for the hard work of the jury.
"I respect the decision of the jury. They took their time. They worked very hard. This is one of the most diligent and intelligent juries I have seen and dealt with," Ip said.
Ip also acknowledged how difficult sexual assault trials are for all involved, including the witnesses and their families.
