A former St. Michael’s College School student who was sexually assaulted by his schoolmates last fall could not bring himself to write his own victim impact statement, so his parents submitted one on his behalf.The teen couldn’t write it because he was unable to relive what happened, his parents said in the statement, read in court by Crown prosecutor Erin McNamara Thursday afternoon on the first day of sentencing for three former St. Michael’s students who have pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the victim with a weapon.The parents described feeling “helpless” and fearing their son will be affected by this for the rest of his life. “This was not just some minor hazing incident,” they said. Their son feels he carries a stigma, and they have to carry this burden alone as they try to move forward, they said. They said they pray for the perpetrators and their families. “They may be able to forgive but they will never forget,” McNamara said.McNamara said time in custody “is on the table” for the three youths who have pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a weapon and assault with a weapon in connection with two separate incidents involving two different victims. One of the teens also pleaded guilty to making child pornography for filming the sexual assault on a cellphone.There are several aggravating factors for the court to consider, McNamara said, including that the sexual assault was carried out by a group and that the victim was unable to defend himself because he was being held down.She also stressed the “heinous aspect” of the sexual assault being recorded.“It’s one thing to be violently assaulted, penetrated and humiliated,” she said. It is another thing to know that that violation is being recorded so that other people will be able to see it, she said.It means that what happened “is never really over,” she said.The lawyers for the three teens have n ...
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