Generations of sexual abuse within his family should help spare a Calgary child lurer time behind bars, his lawyer said Wednesday. Read More
Noteworthy legal cases in Calgary and area from May 5-9, 2025
Noteworthy legal cases in Calgary and area from May 5-9, 2025
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Generations of sexual abuse within his family should help spare a Calgary child lurer time behind bars, his lawyer said Wednesday.
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But Crown prosecutor Stephanie Morton countered the tragic history of Jade Joven Fenton’s family should only reduce what would be an appropriate punishment by six months.
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Morton told Justice Jayme Williams that Fenton’s Indigenous background, which included multiple generations involving the sexual abuse of his relatives, should still land him a sentence of 3½ years on charges of internet luring of a minor and making child pornography.
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Defence counsel Andrew MacKenzie called Fenton’s grandmother, whom Postmedia is not naming, to testify about their family’s dark past.
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“Sexual abuse goes back in my family for generations. It was not something that was ever dealt with,” she said.
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“I was first told about my grandfather abusing his daughters,” the grandmother said.
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“I was sexually abused at seven years old by a foster sister, and at 12 years old by my uncle and then at 17 years old I was raped by a motorcycle gang.”
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She told MacKenzie that created an element of distrust and inability to form relationships.
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“My father was a pedophile and so was my mother.”
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She said her grandson was sexually abused by a neighbour when he was a little boy.
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“I never had help back then, back in the 50s there was no help,” she said, suggesting her grandson needs help.
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“I don’t find jail an answer. I find psychiatry the answer,” the grandma said, before Morton objected and Williams pointed out the issue of deciding the sentence was hers alone.
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Fenton, now 25, earlier pleaded guilty to attempting to lure his then-13-year-old victim via telecommunication, in this case internet chats and other forms of social media and to making child pornography by having the victim send him intimate photographs.
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According to a statement of agreed facts the two randomly met Aug. 3, 2023, on a website called Talk With Strangers. The victim told Fenton she was 13 and he admitted being 23.
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“After a few days, the accused asked (her) if she would do him a favour and send him a nude photograph of herself,” the document states.
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MacKenzie argued a conditional sentence of less than two years, with house arrest, would be a sufficient punishment considering his client’s background.