Sentenced

Man gets 30 months in penitentiary for abuse of foster child

For more than a year, Richard Fildey took advantage. He took advantage of a broken home, a broken system and an eight-year-old girl.

Last Tuesday, the former foster parent was sentenced by Justice Wolfram Tausendfreund to a 30-month prison term for one count each of sexual assault, touching a person under the age of 16 for sexual purpose and sexual exploitation.

Thirty months—just slightly more than double the time a little girl who can only be identified as E. spent every night dreading Fildey’s presence, trapped in her own sort of jail between a broken system, a broken home and a man who was taking advantage of it all.

In 2003, E. and her brother were taken from school and placed in the Fildey home by the Children’s Aid Society of Prince Edward County. They did not have prior notice. Between poorly trained social workers and poorly vetted foster parents, E. found herself in the midst of a nightmare that lasted 14 months, until she was placed in a different home.

It was not until years later, when Fildey tried to connect with her on Facebook that E. disclosed the abuse.

Now an adult, E. was not present in court when Fildey was sentenced. Her victim impact statement, submitted on paper, was presented without being read, keeping her feelings as private as herself.

During the two-hour sentencing hearing, Fildey was given his sentence, a 10-year ban on owning weapons and a place on the national sex-offender registry.

The Canadian criminal code states that sexual offences against children under the age of 14 carry a minimum sentence of 45 days to a maximum of 10 years.