A former Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society employee convicted of sex offences against two youths has been sentenced.
Thursday, Justice Patrick Hurley sentenced 51-year-old Sandra Forcier to six years in jail – four years for sexual exploitation and two years for sexual assault with those sentences to be served consecutively.
With a credit of eight months for time served, she will spend 64 months in jail.
Justice Hurley said Forcier knew the victims were troubled, vulnerable adolescents and befriended and manipulated them for her deviant personal gratification.
One of the victims was a ward of the group home where Forcier worked as a supervisor.
The offences took place in 2012 and 2013.
Forcier was initially charged with five sexual offences in 2019 and convicted of two of them last October.
Forcier delivered an allocution statement at the opening of Thursday’s proceedings asking for leniency saying she has now been diagnosed with several mental health illnesses including Schizoaffective disorder and that those conditions fueled her drug addiction.
She said she fears she will lose the positive gains she has made by getting clean and being prescribed medications that work.
In delivering the sentence, Justice Hurley said he found no reliable evidence that any mental health issues played a role in Forcier’s actions and, while he is sympathetic to her mental health and addiction struggles, they are not an excuse for the crimes she committed.
He said she will continue to receive treatment in prison.
In addition to her prison sentence, Forcier has been prohibited from contacting several people involved in the case.
She also received a 10-year weapons prohibition and a DNA order.
The Crown had called for a sentence of six to nine years while the defence asked for three to five years.
