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Victoria man sentenced to six months jail time, two years probation for sexual touching of underage girls

Christian Murphy Blais was 21 at the time of the offence
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A trial courtroom at the Provincial Court of B.C., in Vancouver in this undated photo. (Cliff MacArthur/provincialcourt.bc.ca)

A 24-year-old Victoria man was sentenced to six months in jail and 24 months of probation for sexually touching two underage girls after buying alcohol for them.

Christian Murphy Blais, who was 21 at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual touching of a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old girl. According to a judgment posted online on June 22, Blais knew the 15-year-old for about two months after meeting her in an “internet teen lounge.” During the time leading up to the sexual touching, Blais asked the older girl to lie to his parents about her age.

On the night in question, the two girls were having a sleepover and asked Blais to buy alcohol for them. He agreed to do so and picked the girls up in his vehicle before purchasing the alcohol and stopping in a parking lot next to a recreation centre where the girls consumed some of it.

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Eventually, they left the parking lot and went to a house where Blais was house sitting to drink some more. The older girl went downstairs to a bedroom and left the younger girl upstairs. When the younger girl finally went downstairs, she found her friend on the bed with her clothing removed next to Blais. According to the judgment, Blais had already engaged in oral sex and other sexual activity with the older girl when the younger girl got onto the bed.

“Some sexual activity then took place between the defendant and the younger girl,” reads the judgment.

Blais told the psychologist tasked with doing an assessment that he “didn’t think there was anything wrong with his conduct as the two girls seemed to be enjoying it.”

Around 4 a.m. Blais drove the girls home and asked them to not tell anyone what had happened. Later, Blais was confused when he received a text message from the older girl telling him he was “disgusting and gross” and that what he did was unforgivable.

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Judge Robert Higinbotham concluded that Blais must have known that both girls were under the age of consent and that any remorse he felt about his actions originated with his arrest and the charges.

Both of the girls attended counselling after the incident.

“The younger girl struggles with anxiety and depression and has isolated herself socially to the point where her mother felt it was necessary to change her school. She continues to absent herself from school and has dropped all extracurricular activities. The older girl also suffers from anxiety and has tended to isolate herself from social activities,” stated Higinbotham.

The charges are the first time Blais has been before the court.

“The defendant did what he did with his eyes open, believing that no one would ever know. He failed to consider any potential negative impact on his victims, and took comfort in the fact they appeared, at least to some extent, to have enjoyed the sexual activity at the time,” reads the judgment.

Blais was ordered to have no contact with the girls, and he will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was sentenced to six months for each charge to be served concurrently, followed by 24 months of probation.

Crown counsel also asked for an order that would keep Blais from engaging in any employment or volunteer work that would find him in a position of trust, but Higinbotham declined to do so as it “may impede the defendant’s ability to find gainful employment.”

Editors note: A previous version of this story did not include Blais’s jail time. It has since been updated to reflect the correct sentence.


 

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