WARNING: This story contains graphic details that will be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
Prosecutors say a former Surrey real estate agent who sexually abused two underage girls and made video recordings of one of them should spend eight years in prison.
Paul Atanassov pleaded guilty to sexual interference and making child pornography. He was originally charged with 14 offences, including sexual assault and child luring.
At a sentencing hearing on Monday, the court heard how Atanassov plied his victims with drugs and alcohol before engaging in protected sexual intercourse with them.
One victim was just 12 years old, while the other was 14.
The Crown told the court the 28-year-old appeared to minimize his behaviour, suggesting his victims were deceitful, and that he wouldn’t have engaged in sexual activity with them if they had been truthful about their age.
The court heard that Atanassov frequently met girls on social media apps, and had used a variety of drugs including Dilauded, Xanax and “Molly” prior to the offences.
According to a doctor’s report entered in court, he had sought out one of his victims when she was just 12 years old.
The girl’s age should have been readily obvious to him, the Crown told the court.
The court also heard how Atanassov had recorded several videos of him abusing one of the victims. One of those videos has since been circulated on social media, further victimizing the girl, the court heard.
The 12-year-old victim’s “life has taken a downward spiral” since the abuse, prosecutors added.
The only mitigating factor in the case, the Crown argued, was Atanassov’s guilty plea.
Defence lawyer Tony Paisana sought a three-year sentence for sexual interference, followed by six months on the child pornography charge, arguing Atanassov “has paid a significant price for his behaviour” and has “lost his chosen field of employment.”
Atanassov was suffering from drug addiction when he committed the offences, Paisana told the court, and was “devastated” when he learned the ages of his victims.
Paisana added Atanassov has been the subject of two acts of vigilantism, and that media coverage of the case had been “salacious.”
Atanassov was also attacked while in custody and stabbed six times, his lawyer said.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Martha Devlin has reserved her decision for a later date.