The mother of the two children involved in a nine-year legal saga with convicted child sex-offender Allan Dean Griffin is relieved the issue has been finally put to rest but says their fight isn't over.
The Alberta Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Griffin's guilty verdict stemming from the assault of his two stepdaughters, who are now adults, back in August and last week denied another appeal stating errors were made when deciding the length of his sentence. He was given nine years for sexually assaulting the two girls - one for eight years beginning when she was six.
The Crown had originally sought a sentence of 10 to 12 years compared to the defence's request of four to five years before Griffin was handed the nine-year prison sentence minus 57 days post conviction credit.
Lisa Fox, the mother of the two children Griffin was convicted of assaulting, said her family is relieved by the decision but added with Griffin up for parole as early as this year they won't get much time to rest.
"The impact of the crimes on our family is devastating ... the fact that Griffin put us through nine years of trials - resulting in a final conviction and prison sentence – only to drag us back year after year for these appeals has left us completely drained and exhausted," Fox stated in a written statement to the Cochrane Eagle.
"Our family is living a life sentence," she added. "We have not yet had an opportunity to live in peace. Griffin is now eligible for day parole this year, so we now have to prepare for this too. It seems as if we finally got justice only to have to stay vigilant and continue to fight for the right to live without fear of him being released."
Fox also gave credit to her daughters' courage as they faced the worst of the proceedings having to relive their trauma repeatedly over the nine-year ordeal.
"It's so important for the public to know how brave my girls are to have gone through all this, bringing their monster to justice was an incredible undertaking. We all went through hell during this process," she stated. "They wanted the world to know what he did, because one day they too will be mothers - and we need society to realize the impacts of these vile acts on our children and help put a stop to the abuse."
Dawn Duggan, the mother of Girffin's biological daughter, who Griffin was also charged with assaulting but was later acquitted on those charges, said she is happy the trial proceedings can finally be put to rest.
"I don't enjoy going to trial and listening to all the stuff he's done the these little girls," said Duggan. Griffin was originally found not-guilty of the charges in 2013 but a retrial was ordered following a successful appeal that ruled the judge erred when he relied on myths and stereotypes about how victims react in such circumstances.
Three months after the retrial began in December 2016, Griffin was found guilty of the assaults on his stepdaughters and acquitted on the charges of assaulting his daughter. At the time, the judge ruled the daughter's testimony was faulty due to unreliable memory.
Duggan said her daughter is angry Griffin was not convicted on the charges relating to her, but happy to see justice done.
The latest appeal attempted to argue the judge was in error when considering the fact the assaults occurred within the same family as an aggravating factor. The appeal judges' decision categorically dismissed the claim.
"The fact that the victims were from the same family aggravated the trauma suffered by the family as a whole,” the appeal judges said, adding, "The evidence supports the conclusion that the family was shattered."
Duggan echoed statements made in the decision characterizing the trauma on the family as "devastating," which was compounded by the lengthy proceedings, which forced her daughter to cut ties with her stepsisters for four year because they were barred from contact to avoid discussing the court proceedings.
"All three girls lost each other ... Me, being the ex-wife, we (she and Lisa Fox, the stepdaughter's mother) didn't always get along the greatest to begin with but the girls would go there every other weekend."
As for the sentence itself, Duggan doesn't believe nine-years is sufficient for the abuse Griffin inflicted on the girls.
She also worries more he won't stay in prison for the full sentence due to the chances for full parole which she said he is eligible for in 2020 ad 2023.
"That's my problem," Duggan said. "For a person like him who ruins entire lives, I thought the sentence could be up to 25 years."
