Sentence delayed for Saskatoon priest convicted of sexually assaulting 13-year-old girl

WATCH: A Saskatoon priest convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old will have to wait for sentencing. Keenan Sorokan reports.

A Saskatoon priest found guilty of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl will have to wait to know his fate after a judge reserved her sentencing decision for another date at Saskatoon Provincial Court Monday.

The court heard sentencing arguments and victim impact statements after Ukrainian Catholic priest Janko Kolosnjaji was found guilty in February.

The girl, who cannot be named because of a publication ban, says she felt “pain, shame and could not understand what had happened.”

“After everything had happened, it felt as if the whole world became hostile and dangerous,” a court-appointed interpreter said, reading the girl’s victim impact statement.

“I constantly felt shame that it happened to me.”

Kolosnjaji, 71, was charged in April 2023, about a month after a woman reported her 13-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of St. George. Judge Lua Gibb previously ruled the girl did not consent to a kiss from Kolosnjaji in a storage closet shortly after the girl and her mom arrived at the church for weekly cleaning on March 11, 2023.

Kolosnjaji previously testified the kiss was part of a traditional greeting in his culture and not for sexual purposes.

“This is not just a violation of the law. It is about the destruction of a child’s trust, a child’s dignity, a soul,” Crown prosecutor Sheryl Fillo said while reading a victim impact statement from the girl’s mother.

“The wound may never heal.”

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A conviction of sexual assault of a minor carries a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in jail. Fillo is argued for an eight-month jail sentence. Defence attorney Brian Pfefferle argued a constitutional challenge not to apply the mandatory minimum. He instead is seeking a six-month conditional, community-based sentence similar to house arrest.

“It would be grossly disproportionate, and it does violate the Charter, and that the court needs to be able to sentence this accused person based on unique circumstances,” Pfefferle said.

Pfefferle is arguing because of Kolosnjaji’s age, his declining health and having no prior record, he is not at risk to reoffend and should not have to serve the mandatory minimum sentence.

“I am very sorry that I bring some [discomfort] to this girl, because this is not my intention at all,” Kolosnjaji said to Gibb.

Pfefferle argued not to add Kolosnjaji to a sex offender registry. He argued for Gibb to consider the “totality of the circumstances” before coming to a decision.

“That’s why trial judges like yourself need to have the full spectrum of sentencing before you, so you can sentence unique persons to unique sentences based on unique circumstances,” he said. “Otherwise, we may have AI sentencing people.”

Fillo told the court this was the girl’s first kiss, and the girl was “extremely” vulnerable as a refugee from a war-torn country who had recently landed in Saskatoon from Ukraine when the assault occurred.

“No matter what type of abuse or how extensive it takes place; it can have a severe psychological effect,” she said.

The Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon put Kolosnjaji on administrative leave since the charges were laid and say he will remain on administrative leave until sentencing an internal church investigation are complete.

The matter will be back at Saskatoon provincial court on June 26 to set a date for a sentencing decision.