Farm worker convicted of sex offense will be deported

A migrant farm worker, jailed while he awaited trial on sexual assault charges, had already endangered his stay in Canada by not returning home on time.

Dwayne Omar Henry, 34, of Manchester, Jamaica, was considered “over-stayed” which gave him a one-year ban from the country, and his criminal charges jeopardized him from ever returning.

He was charged with touching two teenage girls at a Delhi swimming pond.

“I never know a hug could be so serious,” Henry told Justice Aubrey Hilliard at his recent sentencing hearing.

“I feel like I don’t get a fair trial because it is my first time. I deserve a better trial.”

Although he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, the judge found Henry guilty of two counts of sexual interference and conditionally stayed the two charges of sexual assault.

“In evidence,” said the judge, “I found the Crown didn’t make out beyond a reasonable doubt the most aggravating pieces of the sexual assault allegation.

“Mr. Henry was ultimately convicted of the hugging and he was a 31-year-old man and they were the teenagers at the time. It was an objectively sexual act.”

The incident on William Street in Delhi occurred on the evening of May 27, 2021. Friends of Henry were also swimming at the pond and drinking was involved.

Defense lawyer James Battin said the contact between Henry and the young women was “fleeting”, although one of the victims said it was more.

“(It was) a brief touching in a hugging gesture. He may have moved his hand across the buttocks of one of the ladies.

“Not to make light of sexual assault, but this is at the low end of the scale.”

Battin said the girls stayed where they were after the incident but, when Henry and his two friends returned to the area, the girls began screaming.

Battin suggested Henry be given 90 days in jail, despite the fact the man had already served 270 days when he appeared in court, worth the equivalent of more than a year in pre-trial custody.

The judge felt more time was warranted but said she was required to consider the “collateral consequences” to Henry, such as being banned from ever returning to Canada, where some of his family lives.

“He has not accepted any responsibility,” said the judge, “even today. He feels, perhaps understandably so, that his life has been ruined by one indiscreet act but the interaction has some impact on (the victims). They were young girls.”

Hilliard sentenced Henry to the equivalent of 179 days in jail, careful to not go over the six-month level which would see him automatically banned from returning to the country.

“He’s going to be removed from Canada so I don’t see any value in having him report for counselling.”

Henry was sent back to the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Center to await the involvement of the Canada Border Service Agency.

He’ll remain on the national sexual offenders registry for 10 years.

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