Joel Eric Carlson is seen entering the Kamloops courthouse on June 13, 2024.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

CONTENT ADVISORY

A man convicted of sexually assaulting five women over several years, most in Kamloops, has been handed a 10-year, five-month jail sentence.

Joel Eric Carlson, 32, — who was convicted by a Kamloops jury last year — will serve approximately eight years behind bars with credit for time he's already served.

While the circumstances of each incident differed, there were two common themes: Carlson, 32, was often drunk and the one-time personal trainer overpowered his victims.

Justice Paul Riley sentenced Carlson on June 11, attaching a condition he be registered a sex offender for life.

The sexual assaults took place several years ago and Carlson was 20 years old in the least recent case, where he raped his then-girlfriend at his Lower Mainland apartment.

Riley said the assaults were "objectively serious" and "highly intrusive." He noted the maximum sentence for each count was 10 years and though none were so high, they consecutively added to a similar length.

The most recent incident for which he was convicted took place in 2018 when he was 26 years old.

He didn't yet have a criminal record at the time of any of those assaults. It was in 2022 when he was first convicted of a sexual assault, which was the most recent of Carlson's offences.

It took place in Vernon in 2020 where he sexually assaulted a woman he met on a dating app.

Following that assault, police sought more potential victims, resulting in a 2024 Kamloops trial where he was acquitted of some of the charges against him.

He was dating some of the victims who came forward at the Kamloops trial. One was the victim in the Lower Mainland, who was 18 at the time. Her one condition was that he wear a condom, which he refused and then overpowered her.

Though Carlson's mother was in the apartment, she merely told Carlson to "go to bed" as the victim hit the wall and attempted to fend him off.

Another victim was in a four-year "on again-off again" relationship with Carlson. He raped her in her own apartment more than once after arriving drunk on her apartment balcony.

Other victims he met on online dating apps, including one who passed out drunk in his bed after initially being promised the couch. She tried to say no as he kissed her, but could not remember what happened after.

She did remember waking up without her clothes and her vagina was sore as if she had sex.

According to Riley, Carlson showed remorse when speaking in court during his sentencing hearing and had earlier admitted he was "disgusted and ashamed of himself" during a psychiatric assessment.

Riley also noted Carlson breached his conditional sentence that initially kept him out of jail following the sexual assault in Vernon.

Treatment facility staff described him as "passively manipulative" and tended to "push boundaries." He also felt the restrictions on him were inhibiting his freedom. His conditional sentence supervisor made similar comments.

He eventually got a job elsewhere without telling his supervisor and it ended with a charge for breaching his conditions in April 2023.

Following the breach, Kamloops RCMP issued a news release claiming Carlson was wanted. However, he had already turned himself in at that time and later told the court it garnered him unwanted attention from other inmates, resulting in temporary protective custody.

Riley's lengthy sentence for Carlson nearly struck a middle-ground between the 14-year sentence pitched by prosecutors and seven years from his defence counsel.

His lengthy sentence allows him to enter a federal rehabilitation program for serious sexual offenders, only open to inmates with a minimum four-year sentence.

NOTE TO READERS: If you find yourself in need of support please contact one of these organizations. Help is available 24 hours a day at each of these phone numbers:

• VictimLinkBC: 1-800-563-0808
• Vancouver Rape Relief crisis line: 604-872-8212
• Kamloops Sexual Assault Counselling Centre crisis line: 1-888-974-7278

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