Warning: This story contains details of a sexual assault.
A man with a history of targeting young, vulnerable and drug-addicted teens will spend nine years in prison after sexually exploiting and sexually assaulting two young sisters.
Peter John Hooper, 49, was convicted of sexually touching one of the sisters, who was 17 at the time, while in an exploitative relationship with her, and of sexually assaulting her younger sister when she was 16.
He received a total of eight years and nine months. Hooper is currently three months into a five-year sentence for sexually assaulting another teenage girl, including an incident while she was unconscious, and will serve his sentences concurrently.
Hooper must also register as a sex offender for life.
The sisters, who were the third and fourth child victims of Hooper to come before the courts, were vulnerable youth living in foster homes for the majority of the time they knew Hooper and were suffering from substance abuse, using alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, MDMA or benzodiazepines, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Saunders said in his reasons for sentencing on Feb. 18.
Hooper has shown no remorse for his actions against the sisters and continues to deny any responsibility for the offences, the judge said.
He has shown a willingness to disregard court orders, because he was bound by an order to have no contact with the sisters or anyone under 18 at the time of the assault against the older sister, Saunders said.
“He refers to the victims as conniving street people who saw he had money and figured they could get money by being manipulative,” he said.
Hooper’s pattern of befriending vulnerable girls, using illicit drugs with them and sexually abusing them, combined with “his utter lack of remorse,” speaks to a considerable risk of reoffending and points to the need for a lengthy prison sentence to protect the public, Saunders said.
The sisters met Hooper in Langford around late 2016, when one was 15 and the other 14. He began socializing with them and their friends, offering to buy alcohol for them and drinking and smoking marijuana with them.
He would often have them and their friends over to his condo, where he lived with his wife and young daughter, while his wife was at work.
Hooper began using methamphetamine sometime around 2017 and he became the main supplier of the drug for the two girls when they began using it the following year, Saunders said.
At some point in 2018, he began a sexual relationship with the younger sister. While her memory of when the relationship began was vague due to drug use, Saunders said it lasted several months.
The girl was old enough to consent but Saunders found the relationship exploitative, because Hooper facilitated her drug use by supplying her with drugs or money to buy drugs.
Two incidents that the girl could clearly recall involved Hooper and his drug dealer having sex with the girl while she was high.
“She was a young, vulnerable person. Mr. Hooper had an income, home and a vehicle. There was an obvious power imbalance, which Mr. Hooper took advantage of sexually for his own gratification,” Saunders said.
Hooper’s sexual assault of the older sister occurred in December 2018 in his condo while he smoked methamphetamine and marijuana with both sisters and a friend.
The girl went into Hooper’s bedroom with the friend to be intimate with him, but Hooper joined and the two men repeatedly tried to pressure her into having sex with both of them, Saunders said. Hooper then penetrated her without warning or consent while she was performing oral sex on the friend.
Both sisters read victim impact statements describing having suicidal thoughts and trauma from their encounters with Hooper.
The younger sister had a young daughter at the time of the trial and was in a good relationship with the child’s father, which has since broken down and she is no longer allowed to see her daughter, Saunders said.
She acknowledged Hooper is not the cause of all of her problems, but said he has caused her pain, trauma and sexual confusion.
Her older sister described having flashbacks to the assault when trying to be intimate with her partner, leading to anxiety and fear.
“Their statements serve as vivid evidence of the impact of sexual abuse on vulnerable adolescents,” Saunders said.
Hooper pleaded guilty in 2021 to exposing his genitals and invitation to sexual touching involving a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
