‘Harm is profound’: judge sentences man to 12 years for sexual abuse of girls

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after admitting to sexually assaulting two young girls he had lured through social media.

“Because you are young and I love it,” then-21-year-old Nathan Marinko told a 12-year-old victim in April 2023 when she asked why he liked her. “It’s hot that you are young.”

Marinko’s offending “covers the gamut of crimes of sexual violence against children,” provincial court Judge Lisa Labossiere said in a written decision released Tuesday.

“The harm is profound, multifaceted and long term, encompassing physical and psychological injuries,” Labossiere said. “The harm also extends deeply into their families, with lasting consequences that will continue well into the future.”

Marinko pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference, and one count each of making and possessing child sexual abuse material, and luring for offences committed between 2021-2023.

Marinko contacted the first then-13-year-old victim in early 2023 after sending her a friend request through Snapchat, telling her he “just wanted to f—-, to be honest.”

By April 2023, Marinko was having sex with the girl in her grandparents’ home, hiding in the girl’s room for days at a time. When the girl’s grandfather discovered Marinko in her room, the girl told her grandparents he was 17.

The two continued to communicate over Snapchat, with Marinko changing the app’s settings so that their conversations were deleted after they were read.

In May 2023, the girl told her grandmother she had been having sex with Marinko and arrangements were made to take the girl to a medical clinic. Days later she tested positive for chlamydia. The girl told her grandmother Marinko’s real age and the grandmother contacted police.

By that time, Marinko was sexually abusing the second victim, whom he had also met through Snapchat. Marinko exchanged sexual pictures with the then-12-year-old girl before the two met in person at a park near the girl’s home and had sex.

In a text exchange recovered by police, Marinko tried and failed to persuade the girl to allow another person to record them having sex.

Marinko sexually assaulted the girl for the final time on May 2, 2023, after she had turned 13, plying her with alcohol to the point she had trouble speaking. Marinko recorded the sexual abuse on his cellphone.

The girl’s mother later found her unresponsive in her room and covered in vomit. The girl’s parents took her to hospital and, after finding text messages with Marinko on her phone, called police.

Police arrested Marinko the following July and seized his computer and cellphone, on which police found more than 160 child sex abuse images featuring girls between the ages of four and 17 involved in sex acts with adults and other children. Some of the images included pictures of the second victim and an abuse video Marinko admitted sending to a friend over the internet.

In a victim impact statement, parents of one of the girls said she was a happy, energetic and creative youth prior to the abuse, but is now withdrawn and unresponsive, engages in self-harm, and has attempted suicide.

“To keep (her) safe, her family must constantly supervise her by removing her bedroom door, setting alarms and taking shifts to be with her overnight,” Labossiere said.

According to a pre-sentence report prepared for court, Marinko has a family history of residential school involvement, was raised in a home where he was exposed to violence and substance abuse and was sexually abused as a child.

Marinko admitted to a probation officer he would have continued to abuse the victims if he had not been caught.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca