A Windsor man has been sent to prison in connection with sex offences dating back to 2014. Johnathan McIlvride-Lister, now 40, was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Court learned the girl was in the care of the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society (WECAS) at the time, placed with McIlvride-Lister’s mother who was a foster parent. Over the course of a year, McIlvride-Lister developed a friendship with the teenager during which time he convinced her to move into his home, avoid speaking with anyone from CAS and to not speak with any family members. “The offender bought her food, clothing, toiletries, and cigarettes,” Justice George King said Monday in his sentencing decision. “She was wholly dependent on the offender and he created that dependency.” The girl was not in school and she was not working. Even when Windsor Police called looking for her, on behalf of WECAS, Justice King says McIlvride-Lister misled officers about the girls whereabouts. At some point after moving in with McIlvride-Lister, Justice King says their relationship “escalated.” “Her evidence was that she tried to take his hand off her, keeping it there by force,” Justice King said, adding the contact eventually escalated to intercourse. “On her evidence, she shut down because she was too uncomfortable to speak.” The court found McIlvride-Lister knew the girl was under the age of 16 at the time, making consent an “… irrelevant issue to the essential elements of the offence.” “Given what was going on in her life at that time, the offender preyed on that vulnerability, making these offences pernicious, heinous, and significant,” the judge said Monday. McIlvride-Lister’s lawyer asked for a sentence of three years; the prosecutor requested seven. The judge found the range was six to nine years in prison, but he landed on six years because he doesn’t believe McIlvride-Lister will reoffend, has a supportive family (including a wife and young children), stable employment, and is a first-time offender. “There is no question that Mr. McIlvride-Lister engaged in exploitive behaviour,” the judge concluded Monday. “He knew the victim was only 15 years of age, was highly vulnerable and chose to engage in a sexual relationship with her, despite her inability to legally consent to this conduct since she was under the age of 16.” Nearly a decade before the court McIlvride-Lister was first charged in 2017 with seven offences including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, sexual touching, assault, threatening to kill or injure animals, and killing of animals owned by the complainant. According to court documents, McIlvride-Lister pleaded guilty in 2018 to a single charge of sexual assault. In creating their plea agreement, the prosecutor and defence lawyer agreed to a joint sentence of three years in prison, so long as the defence never asked any questions of the lone victim in the case. When the judge conducted what’s known as a ‘plea inquiry’ McIlvride-Lister agreed he had a non-consensual relationship with the victim and threatened her over the course of a year. Yet McIlvride-Lister denied choking the victim and harming any of her animals. He also told the court he pleaded guilty to avoid a longer prison term, because his lawyer believed it was the best offer they were going to get and because he couldn’t afford a new lawyer. In March 2019, Justice Renee Pomerance found McIlvride-Lister “…chose to plead guilty for reasons that have nothing to do with criminal culpability.” “Even if the plea is valid – voluntary, informed and unequivocal – it may be necessary to strike the plea to prevent a miscarriage of justice,” Justice Pomerance wrote in throwing out the plea and ordering a new trial. After a 27-day trial in 2023, Justice George King found McIlvride-Lister guilty of sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation. When he is out of prison, McIlvride-Lister will be banned from owning weapons, will have to submit a DNA sample and his name will be on the Sex Offender Information Registration Act (SOIRA) for 20 years. Justice King denied a crown request that McIlvride-Lister be banned from anywhere children might be upon release. The judge does not believe McIlvride-Lister will reoffend upon his release. In addition to his defence counsel, the judge noted an appellate lawyer listened to Monday’s sentencing hearing against McIlvride-Lister. Justice King has already dismissed two defence applications for abuse of process and ineffective advice of counsel.
