Roy Cameron, 22, was handed a 4 1/2-year sentence after earlier pleading guilty to breaking into a dwelling house and sexually interfering with a child under 14 years old.

A “reprehensible” man who drunkenly broke into a group home and attacked a terrified nine-year-old boy – in his own bed – was sent to prison yesterday.

However, Cameron has only one more year left to serve after getting 42 months credit for the 21 months he spent in pre-trial custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre.

“Sexual assault of children is reprehensible. Doing so in the child’s own bed is worse,” said Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donna Read, calling the sex crime an “invasion” of the sleeping victim’s bedroom.

Court heard an intoxicated Cameron tried to get into a north-side group home for children on July 21, 2005, but was told he was not allowed by a female supervisor.

He then knocked on several basement bedroom windows, waking up an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy, who both refused to let him in and ran to alert the supervisor.

The woman then heard a window being broken and called police because she was too scared to go downstairs.

When officers arrived at the bedroom of the nine-year-old victim and turned on the light, they found Cameron with his pants at his ankles on top of the boy, molesting him. Police said the boy’s eyes were bulging and he had a terrified look on his face, as Cameron was kissing and licking his body.

Court also heard Cameron told the boy, who was curled up in a fetal position, he would kill him if he told anyone.

In a victim impact statement read out in court by the prosecutor, the now 11-year-old boy said he is scared to go downstairs alone and has trouble sleeping at night.

In an earlier prepared psychiatric assessment, the sex offender denied he had molested the boy and claimed it didn’t sound like something he would do.

In exchange for the guilty plea, charges of sexual assault, sexual contact with a child and uttering death threats were withdrawn. Cameron was also ordered to be placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.

Adapter from The Edmonton Sun, April 5, 2008

Far too frequently, Group Homes whether they be for children, seniors, or handicapped, are unregulated, unmonitored and unsafe.