BELLEVILLE, Ont. - A Canadian Forces corporal was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday, for a string of sex and incest related offences.

The man can't be named because of a court-ordered publication ban which restricts publishing any information that could identify the victim. He was sentenced by Judge Stephen Hunter.

The Quinte West man, who was a master corporal at CFB Trenton before his arrest last fall, will serve just over four years of his sentence in the federal penitentiary after he received two-for-one credit for the 11 months he spent in jail.

The man pleaded guilty in July to one count each of incest, sexual assault, sexual interference, possession of child pornography, production of child pornography and the careless use and storage of a weapon.

Hunter also slapped the accused with several conditions that will commence once he is released. Those included a 10-year weapons prohibition, along with a 10-year ban from attending any public place such as parks or playgrounds where children under the age of 16 might reasonably be. The accused will also be listed on the sexual offenders registry for 20 years.

Before issuing his ruling, Hunter said he wanted to apply a balanced sentenced that addressed society's need to condemn the accused for his wrongdoing while leaving the door open for proper rehabilitation.

He added that both the accused and the victim have yet to grasp the complete impact of the tragic ordeal on their lives.

“Both of you need that insight to move forward,” he said.

In her victim impact statement, the victim expressed some desire to re-establish a relationship with the man.

Hunter said he didn't intend to “dissuade her from wanting to reconcile ... at some point,” but recommended she undergo extensive counselling before that is allowed.

“She has been the victim of a horrific and callous sexual assault,” he said.

Hunter called the case “perplexing” mentioning that, from all accounts, the accused was a man who served his country “in environments that were less than friendly.”

Hunter said it wasn't surprising the accused suffered from post-dramatic stress disorder. He was also at one point taking medication with adverse side effects, such as sexually-oriented dreams, the court heard.

“The court struggles to understand what brought (the accused) to this place and time in his life,” Hunter said.

Hunter added that girl stated in her victim impact statement that the accused “wasn't the same (man) who left,” for Afghanistan and went on to chide the accused for undermining the victim's trust for his own purposes.

“You may be sick and ill but you knew what you were doing, you knew who you were doing it to and continued to do that,” he said.

The sexual offender's assessment done on the accused concluded he accepted responsibility and was remorseful. It also established he didn't poses a high risk of recommitting similar acts and was open to receiving treatment. Hunter said the man's early guilty plea also reduced the suffering for everyone.

Court heard the man was charged last fall after the victim told a friend she was sexually assault. The victim also stated the accused had sexual contact with her at least 10 times leading up to his arrest in October 2009 and that he took photographs of some of the sexual acts.

In addition to sexually explicit images of his victim, investigators discovered about 1,800 images of child pornography on computers, some of the pictures showing children carrying out various sexual acts. Police also found several weapons and ammunition, including three long guns. The guns have been confiscated.

jmiller@intelligencer.ca