N.S. man sentenced to 27 months for sex offences against young girls

WARNING: This story containsdisturbing details about sexual abuse of minors.

A Nova Scotia man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for sex offences involving young girls.

Carlos Moraga, 38, had previouslypleaded guilty to sexual interference and making child pornography. He was sentenced Thursday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Truro.

The interference charge is related to two incidents in whichMoraga groped the 14-year-old daughter of a woman he knows.

The child pornography charge is different, as it did not involve images of a young girl. Instead, it was a graphic email exchange between Moraga and another man, Peter Moorhouse.

"The courts are making a distinction, as I mentioned on the record, between making child pornography, where you have a child in front of you and you're taking photos or making videos versus a discussion between two adults that has a graphic, serious nature to it," Crown prosecutor Terri Lipton said outside court.

Emails discussed sexual assault

In the facts she read into the record, Lipton said Moorhouse and Moraga exchanged nearly 250 emails. In them, they discussed wanting to sexually assault the 14-year-old, as well as the 12-year-old daughter of a woman Moorhouse knows. The men discussed using drugs and alcohol to make it easier to assault the girls and make it harder for them to remember.

The judge accepted Lipton's summary of the emails.

"Quite often in joint recommendations, we don't put that material unnecessarily before the court. It revictimizes the parties that are involved and if we can provide sufficient enough detail for the court, that would meet the purpose," Lipton said.

Victim impact statement

The mother of the 14-year-old discovered the exchange and called police before the assaults could take place.

In a victim impact statement read by Lipton, the girl described how she suffers from PTSD, anxiety and depression. She said her grades have suffered enough to jeopardize her chances of getting into university. She has also attempted suicide. She wrote that the biggest consequence of this episode is the damage it has done to her relationships, especiallywith her mother who, the girl said, was afraid to let her out of her sight.

Last summer, Moorhouse pleaded guilty to two sex offences. However, his sentencing has been repeatedly delayed as he awaits the outcome of another case before the Supreme Court of Canada. The child pornography charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of a year in jail, although the Supreme Court may strike down that minimum in the anticipated ruling.

Moorhouse is the better-known of the two offenders as, before he was charged, he was the Atlantic president of the Better Business Bureau. Moraga is a mechanic.

In addition to the prison term, Moraga's DNA will be placed in a national data bank and his name will be added to the national sex offender registry for 20 years. He will also have very restricted access to the internet for 15 years after his release from prison.