'Immeasurable' trauma: Ex-Harper bandmate jailed for child sex raps
By Tony Spears, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Monday, January 04, 2016 11:38 AM EST | Updated: Monday, January 04, 2016 01:31 PM EST
She thought she’d found love in the arms of her music teacher, but as the 13-year-old girl grew up she realized she’d been conned by a sexual predator.
Phil Nolan — who played drums in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s band until the sins of his past caught up with him — got two years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in October to two counts of sexual interference.
“He manipulated a 13-year-old child to ... believe that this was a relationship,” Judge Ann Alder said. “In reality it was sexual child abuse.”
Nolan, 45, had told the author of a pre-sentence report that his 29-year-old self “just hit it off” with the young middle school girl.
“It just happened,” he’d explained.
Alder was blunt.
“Child sexual abuse is not something that happens because a 29-year-old man and a 13-year-old child hit it off,” Alder said, calling the illicit relationship “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
Things turned physical in the girl’s own home.
According to an agreed statement of facts, teacher and student had had heart-to-hearts for months at school; Nolan had even helped set up an e-mail for the girl so they could correspond covertly.
He gave her rides home — asking her to duck when they drove past parents — and then, at the end of one of those trips, he lay atop her and said he wanted to kiss her.
He did.
Nolan taught her sex acts and, on an end-of-year school trip, he ensured she would be sleeping in a hotel room by herself.
He didn’t allow her to be alone there for long.
According to the facts, the strain of the secret began to wear on her.
She remembered bursting into tears at a party, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell her worried friend about Nolan’s appetites.
She nevertheless wrote Nolan chatty letters from summer camp and obeyed his requests to use the camera he bought for her to take photos of herself.
They would prove to be his undoing.
The girl, who’d continued to struggle with the growing realization that Nolan had groomed her for sex, reported him to police in 2013.
Nolan told his wife about the investigation and she did some sleuthing of her own.
That’s when she found an old bag of his, containing photos of the girl and her love letters — trophies from his conquest.
He’d hoped to be spared jail, asking Alder to impose house arrest, while Crown prosecutor John Ramsay had asked for a four- to six-year prison sentence.
The judge said it had to be prison.
“He was entrusted to educate, guide and inspire children,” Alder said. “He abused his position of trust for his own sexual gratification.”
Nolan had apologized to the court during his October plea, calling the latest chapter in his life “a living hell for me.”
“I cry every time I read (the girl’s) victim impact statement,” he said.
But Alder noted the victim still suffers.
“The trauma Mr. Nolan caused was immeasurable,” the judge said.
“For years she suffered alone. She suffered for something that she was not responsible for — that Mr. Nolan was responsible for.”
The judge also gave him three years of probation and placed him on the national sex offender registry for life.
tony.spears@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @ottawasuntonys
Disgraced teacher Phillip Nolan leaves the Ottawa courthouse on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 after pleading guilty to counts of sexual interference involving a 13-year-old former student. Nolan was an award-winning teacher and played drums in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's band. (TONY SPEARS/Ottawa Sun/Postmedia Network)
'Immeasurable' trauma: Ex-Harper bandmate jailed for child sex raps | Ontario |
By Tony Spears, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Monday, January 04, 2016 11:38 AM EST | Updated: Monday, January 04, 2016 01:31 PM EST
She thought she’d found love in the arms of her music teacher, but as the 13-year-old girl grew up she realized she’d been conned by a sexual predator.
Phil Nolan — who played drums in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s band until the sins of his past caught up with him — got two years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in October to two counts of sexual interference.
“He manipulated a 13-year-old child to ... believe that this was a relationship,” Judge Ann Alder said. “In reality it was sexual child abuse.”
Nolan, 45, had told the author of a pre-sentence report that his 29-year-old self “just hit it off” with the young middle school girl.
“It just happened,” he’d explained.
Alder was blunt.
“Child sexual abuse is not something that happens because a 29-year-old man and a 13-year-old child hit it off,” Alder said, calling the illicit relationship “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
Things turned physical in the girl’s own home.
According to an agreed statement of facts, teacher and student had had heart-to-hearts for months at school; Nolan had even helped set up an e-mail for the girl so they could correspond covertly.
He gave her rides home — asking her to duck when they drove past parents — and then, at the end of one of those trips, he lay atop her and said he wanted to kiss her.
He did.
Nolan taught her sex acts and, on an end-of-year school trip, he ensured she would be sleeping in a hotel room by herself.
He didn’t allow her to be alone there for long.
According to the facts, the strain of the secret began to wear on her.
She remembered bursting into tears at a party, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell her worried friend about Nolan’s appetites.
She nevertheless wrote Nolan chatty letters from summer camp and obeyed his requests to use the camera he bought for her to take photos of herself.
They would prove to be his undoing.
The girl, who’d continued to struggle with the growing realization that Nolan had groomed her for sex, reported him to police in 2013.
Nolan told his wife about the investigation and she did some sleuthing of her own.
That’s when she found an old bag of his, containing photos of the girl and her love letters — trophies from his conquest.
He’d hoped to be spared jail, asking Alder to impose house arrest, while Crown prosecutor John Ramsay had asked for a four- to six-year prison sentence.
The judge said it had to be prison.
“He was entrusted to educate, guide and inspire children,” Alder said. “He abused his position of trust for his own sexual gratification.”
Nolan had apologized to the court during his October plea, calling the latest chapter in his life “a living hell for me.”
“I cry every time I read (the girl’s) victim impact statement,” he said.
But Alder noted the victim still suffers.
“The trauma Mr. Nolan caused was immeasurable,” the judge said.
“For years she suffered alone. She suffered for something that she was not responsible for — that Mr. Nolan was responsible for.”
The judge also gave him three years of probation and placed him on the national sex offender registry for life.
tony.spears@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @ottawasuntonys
Disgraced teacher Phillip Nolan leaves the Ottawa courthouse on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 after pleading guilty to counts of sexual interference involving a 13-year-old former student. Nolan was an award-winning teacher and played drums in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's band. (TONY SPEARS/Ottawa Sun/Postmedia Network)
'Immeasurable' trauma: Ex-Harper bandmate jailed for child sex raps | Ontario |
