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Friday, February 22, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Eyes on the prize Sergey Ussoltsev from Kazakhstan crosses the finish line in the men’s individual sitting biathlon long distance race at the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships at the Otway Nordic Centre on Thursday. See more coverage of the competition on page 9.

Convicted pedophile moved next door to Senior double-billed by city two young girls, sentencing hearing told Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca A Crown prosecutor is raising as a central issue a convicted pedophile’s behaviour while out on bail when facing charges for molesting a young girl. In February 2015, a jury found Paul Veeken guilty of sexually interfering with a person under 16 years old and he was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail followed by one year probation. In the aftermath, Veeken, now 45, won a new trial, this time before a judge alone. But in December, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lance Bernard effectively upheld the jury’s verdict, finding Veeken had inappropriately and deliberately touched a girl over the course of about two years starting when she was 10 years old, often under the guise of pulling her onto his lap and tickling her. A sentencing hearing that began Thursday effectively turned into a trial on whether Veeken breached a condition of his bail while standing accused of the offence when, in summer 2014, he moved next door to a home where two young girls were living. The girls’ father testified that while the relationship between Veeken and the family had been “pretty solid, friendly, neighbourly,” they never knew his last name until, about 1 1/2 years after he moved in, Veeken invited the parents to his home for dinner in December 2015. When he turned on his computer to show them pictures of a cabin his family had worked on, Veeken’s last name appeared on the screen prompting a passing joke that the neighbours finally knew his last name.

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The father said his suspicions were raised only after Veeken commented about his family and “how we wouldn’t like him or we wouldn’t like them.” Concerned that it seemed to be an unusual comment, the father searched for Veeken’s name on the internet and found a story from The Citizen about the first time he was convicted. From there, the father went to the RCMP to clarify whether Veeken was that same person and the girls were subsequently told to stay away from him. Veeken, in turn, soon moved away. While testifying on his own behalf, Veeken had maintained that while he never told the parents he was on bail and facing charges, he had made it clear during a visit about a year after he had moved in that he was facing “false allegations” and so did not want to be near children. However, that contention did not fly with Bernard, who agreed with Crown counsel that Veeken had violated a condition of his bail to not be in the company of a minor except when in the “presence of an adult third party with knowledge of the condition.” From there, prosecutor Marie Louise Ahrens argued Veeken’s behaviour fit a pattern similar to that which had led to the conviction for sexual interference, saying he had begun a new cycle of befriending, grooming and then abusing a young girl. Veeken couldn’t help himself because he’s a pedophile, and the only thing that stopped him was “he got found out,” Ahrens submitted. The hearing continues Friday at the Prince George courthouse.

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First a local senior got a utility bill from city hall. That was normal and unremarkable. Then, another one came for exactly the same amount. “I was so confused. I thought I had done something wrong, or city hall was doing something new and I owed more money,” said the local senior. A call to city hall resulted in instructions the senior felt were wholly inadequate. “Why didn’t they make a big deal out this, telling people about it?” the senior said. “People should have been made aware, really aware, and what I got told was ‘oh, it was on our website.’ Can you imagine? Do they think people spend their time checking the city’s website to see what might be there? A lot of seniors don’t even have a computer.” City of Prince George spokesperson Michael Kellett said the two bills were not double-billing. Only one of those bills needed to be paid, the other destroyed. “It is important to note that the com-

puter system, which tracks how much is owed, did not bill residents two times,” he explained. “The error occurred in the printing process. If somehow a resident did pay twice due to this issue, the city would reimburse them for the extra payment as their account would reflect an over-payment.” It is one thing to hear the money only needs to be paid once, said the elder, but the amount on this bill was almost $600 and “a lot of seniors may not realize what’s going on, they will pay twice and even if it gets applied as a credit or gets refunded somehow, that money is out of pocket for awhile, and a lot of seniors can’t afford to be out that amount for any length of time.” Kellett said the root of the printing error was not yet known but the city was apologetic for any inconvenience this might have caused, and staff was working to ensure it doesn’t happen again. “Some bills were accidentally printed twice – we don’t yet know exactly how many, but we do know it was not the majority. As it says on the website, residents only need to pay one of the notices as long as the account number on both bills is the same.”

B.C. considering vaccination registry, Dix says Sheryl UBELACKER Citizen news service TORONTO — The B.C. government is considering a mandatory vaccination registration program similar to that in Ontario in the wake of an outbreak of measles in Vancouver, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Thursday. Such a system would be aimed at boost-

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See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts

www.pgcitizen.ca

ing the proportion of residents in the province who are vaccinated against the highly contagious disease, he said. “While there are some people who are expressing opposition to immunization, and others who can’t be immunized for medical reasons, some people simply fall through the cracks of the system,” Dix said. — see ‘I’M NOT FORCING, page 3

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