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An Innisfil man who is the subject of a dangerous-offender application has asked the court to send him to a treatment centre and give him a chance to live an "offence-free" life.
James Hamilton, 54, had earlier pleaded guilty to sexual interference and making a sexual arrangement involving children, along with failing to comply with prohibition and probation orders.
The Crown has applied to have him declared a dangerous offender.
On Thursday, at the conclusion of his sentencing hearing which started last month, Hamilton read a five-page statement to the court which included his plan for treatment and release.
Hamilton also said he was the victim of repeated sexual assault while in foster care from 1976 to 1983, resulting in a lawsuit he said concluded this past summer.
“This is a big part of my horrible past of being raped and abused,” said Hamilton, who has an adult child and a toddler. “This is embarrassing to me as a man and as a father to admit to this.”
Hamilton said he made a "terrible mistake" with a girl in 2007 and eight years later he got into trouble with a 17-year-old girl.
He apologized to the earlier victim in court and to a woman to whom he texted “dumb, inappropriate things” about a young girl.
“I am ashamed for this. I know I was very wrong and morally wrong and I’m very sorry to both," he said.
A publication ban prevents the reporting of any information related to the identity of the complainants.
Earlier in the sentencing hearing, Crown attorney Lynne Saunders said Hamilton used manipulation, threats, praise, and ingratiation for his own sexual gratification. He twice befriended recently widowed women with young children.
Hamilton was accused of trying to persuade one of the women to make her eight-year-old daughter available for sexual purposes. In exchange, he would provide the mother with alcohol and money.
He was on probation at the time in connection to convictions in 2010 of sexual assault and three counts of sexual interference involving another girl, for which he was sentenced to five years.
In 2015, he was sentenced to 280 days after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation and failing to comply with probation. The probation order that followed was still in effect when he was arrested in 2018.
Hamilton told the court in Thursday’s remote hearing that, through counselling, he has learned fantasies could lead to trouble and he has been working on his cognitive thinking skills with a worker and through course work in his cell.
During the past three years while in jail, he said he has received mental health counselling and help from the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre and has made many gains. He also earned his General Education Development (GED) certificate.
Hamilton said the transfer from jail, where he has been locked up since his arrest on Sept. 6, 2018, to the facility where he will ultimately serve his time takes months, delaying his access to treatment.
The intensive help he seeks through one-on-one psychotherapy or sexual abuse counselling, he said, isn’t available through Corrections Canada and the penitentiary system. He believes the help he needs is available at the treatment centre.
“Putting me in jail for more time is not a solution. I’ve done penitentiary time and group counselling and it did not work,” he said, because the focus was on the group with no opportunity for one-on-one counselling.
“I’m asking you to please give me a chance and let me live the rest of my life offence-free,” Hamilton said during the hearing over the Zoom platform from the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene, addressing Justice Michelle Fuerst of the Superior Court of Justice.
Hamilton said his girlfriend has been waiting for him, he has support from his son and friend, and he has a full-time job and business he can return to.
The Crown attorney earlier asked to have him declared a dangerous offender, to be accompanied by a determinate sentence of 10 years. Minus three years of pre-trial custody, he would have seven years left to serve.
Defence lawyer Robert Yasskin agreed there was evidence that could lead the judge to make a dangerous-offender designation.
Yasskin suggested Hamilton should be given enhanced credit for the time he’s been waiting in jail since his arrest in September 2018, bringing the time to be served down to five years and six months.
That would be followed by a 10-year, long-term supervision order.
Hamilton returns to court Feb. 3 for sentencing.
