A child rapist described by a judge as a “monster” when he was sentenced in 2016 to seven years in prison has returned to court now that his sentence is over looking to have a number of his protective conditions lifted or loosened.
Steven Walsh, 54, was in Kamloops provincial court on Monday, where his lawyer asked a judge to loosen a prohibition order preventing him from visiting schools, parks or playgrounds and barring him from having any contact with anyone younger than 16.
Walsh was sentenced in Kelowna provincial court in 2016 to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of sexual interference of a person under 16 and making child pornography. He was arrested in November of 2012, at which time police located more than 100 sexual images and videos depicting a child Walsh knew.
At the time of Walsh’s sentencing, court heard the victim wanted to kill herself due to her “humiliation and shame” following the offences.
In addition to the prison time, Walsh was also handed a 20-year prohibition order with conditions aimed at protecting society from future offences. The terms of the order kicked in a little more than a month ago when Walsh’s seven-year sentence expired.
In court on Monday, defence lawyer John Gustafson outlined Walsh’s request. He is asking a judge to do three things — shorten his prohibition order from 20 years to five, eliminate a condition barring him from schools, parks and recreation centres and loosen a condition prohibiting him from having contact with anyone younger than 16.
Gustafson said the term of the order should be shortened to reflect the determination that Walsh has been deemed a low risk to reoffend, and because he has completed programming and changed his attitude.
Walsh wants to be allowed to go to schools and recreation centres for a couple of reasons, Gustafson said — because he works as a delivery driver and might be asked to visit one for work, and because he wants to swim to help with a back problem.
“Social isolation and use of leisure time are important factors for Mr. Walsh, not only in his reintegration to society but also in maintaining a low risk to society,” Gustafson said.
Gustafson is asking for the term prohibiting contact with children to be lifted or altered because it is more restrictive than one of the conditions Walsh was bound by while on parole, which prevented him from contacting any female under 16.
Crown prosecutor Chris Balison opposed Walsh’s application, pointing to the most recent psychological risk assessment on Walsh’s file, which was completed in 2020.
In it, Balison said, the assessing doctor deemed Walsh a low risk to re-offend sexually as long as “external controls” are in place.
“Those external controls are the conditions by which he is bound on statutory release or the conditions of the order,” Balison said.
"We remove those external controls and we don’t know what level of risk he is — we don’t have any evidence to suggest it remains low.”
Kamloops provincial court Judge Ray Phillips said he needs time to consider the matter. Lawyers will return to court on Feb. 22 to set a date for his decision.
