(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

SHAVED YOUNG MAN'S PRIVATE PARTS WHILE HE SLEPT

KAMLOOPS - A community leader who used his reputation as a means to keep his bizarre sexual behaviour and assault on a young man secret will spend the next three years in a federal prison, a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice decided today, June 26.

Michael Hume, a man of many roles in the Lytton First Nation community, was a band liaison for the criminal justice system and youth initiatives. A jury convicted him of sexual assault, uttering threats and unlawful confinement in January.

The case came before the courts after the assault took place in August 2013 when Hume offered a ride to a young man who had been through the youth justice program. The man, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, was intoxicated. He joined Hume at his house where the accused offered him a mixed drink.

Justice Sheri Donegan said the man has no memories of what occurred after he finished the drink. When he woke, up on his back, the man found Hume kneeling before him, raising his leg and shaving the hair underneath his testicles.

Donegan said Hume told the young man "don’t be mad, your girlfriend will like it anyways” and the man noticed other areas of his body, including his testicles, armpits, stomach, pubic region and around his anus were shaved.

The victim testified during the week-long trial that Hume left the room and returned with a vacuum cleaner. As he tidied up the room, Donegan said the victim tried to leave but felt threatened by the accused who said he would hit him with a glass bottle if he made an escape attempt.

“He was too scared to leave,” Donegan said adding the accused used his reputation as leverage over the victim. 

The victim said Hume gave him a ride home, cash and asked him not to say anything adding “no one will believe you anyways.”

Hume, whose supporters filled courtroom 5B to over-capacity, testified during the trial the offence never took place. As part of the defence’s case, which included 66 letters of support, a psychiatrist in Kelowna said the accused was a low-risk to re-offend, but Donegan said the repetitive denial was inconsistent with mitigating risk. Hume’s lawyer, Richard Kaiser, asked for a 90-day sentence for his client to serve on weekends at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre.

Donegan instead handed Hume three years in a federal prison after dismissing the charge of uttering threats. Crown prosecutor Chris Ballison recommended four years in prison.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015