(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

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A Kamloops man was sentenced to two years in custody after he raped the mother of his newborn child.

She was five weeks out from a difficult and lengthy birth when he sexually assaulted her while she slept more than three years ago.

He was sentenced in December after a judge found him guilty in the fall of 2023. He cannot be named, however, due to a publication ban that protects the name of his victim.

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His lawyer, Courtney McLaughlin, proposed a two-year conditional sentence, which may have included house arrest. Justice Ward Branch agreed with the sentence proposed by Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston on Dec. 8, putting the man away for two years in a federal institution. 

When the man was convicted in the fall, Branch described the relationship between the man and his victim as "tumultuous." They did not live together, but it was his suggestion to give her time to rest that led to the assault.

She wanted to sleep and they agreed to keep their clothes on. Five weeks after the 72-hour birth, she was recovering from tearing, bleeding and a loss of bladder control, still wearing hospital-supplied underwear that he would later pull off while she slept before raping her as she tried to fight him off.

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When he was finished, he left the room and she was left to care for the baby, who was sleeping in the same room but awoke and started to cry.

The man denied he sexually assaulted her, but Branch agreed with the victim's testimony.

They started a "long break up process" in the days after the assault and she didn't report it until months later.

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She applied for a protection order against her attacker in March 2021 after he put a ladder against her window and threatened to come inside. He also admitted to this, but he told the court it was only because she wasn't answering the door "even though she had invited him to come over," Justice Branch said in his decision.

She reported the assault to RCMP in May 2021.

In his sentencing decision, Branch said there was no evidence to suggest whether the man has any remorse for what he did.

Once he's released, he will be placed on a national sex offender registry for 10 years and he'll serve a two-year probation order.

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