A Nigerian man who s3xually assaulted two women has been sentenced to just two years in prison in Canada because he is black and was feeling intense pressure around the time of the attacks, the judge said.
Omogbolahan Jegede, 25, a former university football player, had choked one of the women almost into unconsciousness.
The sentence has reignited a national debate over whether personal background should mitigate accountability for serious crimes.
“It should be noted that but, for the contents of the Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA), the pre-sentence report and all the mitigating factors surrounding Omogbolahan (Teddy) Jegede, this sentence would have been much higher,” Justice Frank Hoskins said in his Nova Scotia Supreme Court decision.
The women were attacked in residences at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., in 2022 and 2023.
One woman testified that Jegede choked her; one woman was forced to perform oral s3x. Both women said they were physically dominated by Jegede, who is much larger than they are.
The author of an Impact of Race and Culture Assessment, a report funded under a new initiative from the Trudeau Liberals, wrote that Jegede was feeling intense pressure around the time of the assaults and did not have culturally appropriate support to turn to.
Jegede was convicted in a jury trial this year and sentenced last Wednesday.
Justice Hoskins added three years of probation, although he said that term could be shortened if Jegede makes significant progress in counselling.
The Crown had requested a sentence of up to 36 months, while defence counsel asked the judge to consider a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
In my view, this is a case where the need for denunciation is so pressing the incarceration is the only civil way in which to express society’s condemnation of Mr. Jegede’s conduct,” said Justice Hoskins.
The judge noted that Jegede came from a strong, church-going family with strict parents who had stable professional careers. Jegede did well in school and excelled in sports, showing leadership capabilities. He told the court he grew up feeling loved by his supported family.
Later he began a degree in kinetics at St. FX, though those studies were interrupted by his crimes and subsequent charges. Nonetheless, he expressed interest in completing his degree and pursuing a masters, Justice Hoskins said.
He noted that Jegede was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He moved with his family to Canada in 2010. They lived first in Brampton, Ont., and then moved west to Fort McMurray, Alta.
His mother said the transition to Canada was a significant adjustment for the family, and said their youngest son “experienced bullying in elementary school due to his accent and racial identity as a black child.”
The IRCA writer looked at this kind of cultural factor, outlining declines in Jegede’s course performance and mental health in his second and third years at St. FX.
Jegede told the writer that he struggled with a sense of isolation being a black man in predominantly white university town.
“I grew up around black people in Brampton and Fort McMurray. Many of them were immigrants, which allowed us to relate to each other on many levels, especially culture. It was like that until I moved to Antigonish to attend university.”
Reading from the IRCA, Justice Hoskins said: “The absence of adult mentors or role models further exacerbated Mr. Jegede’s vulnerability. His parents had hoped his football coach would provide guidance, but this need went unmet.”
Hoskins said the IRCA “provided valuable insight. It has provided me with an understanding of Mr. Jegede’s background from a social, cultural perspective.”
However, he also circled back to the ” two very serious sexual assault and offences against two different victims at the same school, in similar circumstances, approximately five months apart, which is concerning, because it suggests that Mr. Jegede may be dangerous … In other words, this is not an isolated incident involving one victim, the nature of both offences and their immediate lasting consequences make them very serious offences.”
Hoskins went on to note that the “primary aggravating factor, in this case, is the violence and serious evasive nature of the s3xual assaults, particularly the offence involving (one of the victims), where she was forced to provide Mr. Jegede oral s3x, while her movements were being forcefully controlled by (him).”
He responded in a vehement tone to defence counsel’s suggestion that a conditional sentence served in the community would be appropriate.
“I’m in the view that I cannot exclude a federal period of incarceration as a fit and proper punishment for these offences.” (A federal sentence is at least two years; a shorter term would be in a provincial jail.)
Hoskins arrived at two years by determining 18 months for the more violent and invasive of the two s3xual assaults and six months for the other.
He tacked on three years probation, rather than more prison time, because he saw Jegede as having potential to turn himself around.
He noted Jegede is only 25 and has significant family and community support
He even expressed support for early parole: “I think Mr. Jegede will be a really good candidate for probably early parole given everything I’ve read. There’s no question about that.”
The use of IRCAs is relatively new. Their use has arisen from an initiative begun under the Justin Trudeau Liberals.
In April 2021, David Lametti, former minister of justice, announced funding of $6.64 million over five years, followed by $1.6 million annually to implement IRCAs across Canada. “IRCAs are pre-sentencing reports that help sentencing judges to better understand the effect of poverty, marginalization, racism, and social exclusion on the offender and their life experience,” the justice department stated in a 2021 press release. “IRCAs explain how the offenders lived experiences of racism and discrimination inform the circumstances of the offender, the offence committed, and the offender’s experience with the justice system.”
