A man in jail for a sex crime against a 13-year-old girl was sentenced Tuesday to two additional months in custody for giving Dilaudid pills to a drug addict in exchange for sex.
Darrin Phillip Rouse, 52, of North Kentville, was convicted in January of obtaining sexual services for consideration, but wasn’t sentenced in Kentville Supreme Court until Tuesday because of a variety of delays in the intervening months.
Rouse was introduced by a mutual acquaintance to a woman who had developed a prescription drug addiction, and became a dealer for her. She testified at trial that she was short of cash in 2015, and Rouse had suggested to her that she exchange sexual favours for her pills. She said she did so on two occasions.
She said she considered Rouse a friend, but that friendship ended because of an incident not connected to her drug use.
Judge Ann Smith said at Rouse’s sentencing that a sexual offender assessment in May said he is at an above-average risk to be charged or convicted of another sexual offence in the future.
“Mr. Rouse has participated in specialized treatment twice according to the authors of the ... assessment, with apparently no success as reported by the authors.”
Smith said that the victim was “vulnerable to Mr. Rouse’s self-serving personal desire for sexual favours. ... This is not a victimless crime.”
She said she didn’t agree with the Crown that the offence was similar to drug trafficking.
Smith said a six-month sentence was a fit sentence, but that in considering the other sentence Rouse is already serving, a two-month term was appropriate. The sentences will be served consecutively.
Rouse was sentenced earlier this month to five years in jail for sexual interference for convincing a 13-year-old girl to have sex with him when she was below the legal age of consent. The crime happened more than a decade ago. He also has convictions for sexual assault in 1996 and 2002.
Crown attorney Mike MacKenzie had been asking for a sentence of two years in jail, while defence lawyer Zeb Brown had suggested a $1,000 fine.
MacKenzie said after court that because the charge of obtaining sexual services for consideration was new in late 2014, there isn’t a lot of case law on file and the sentence imposed by Smith fell within the appropriate range.
Rouse is due back in court Thursday to be sentenced for another conviction of obtaining sexual services for consideration, along with drug trafficking.
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