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Man gets 22-year sentence for sexually abusing six Northern Manitoba boys

Arnold Collier, 54, was sentenced Dec. 1 after pleading guilty to the charges in September.
thompson provincial building
Arnold Collier was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the Thompson court office Dec. 1 for sexually abusing six boys under 16 years old in a Northern Manitoba community between 2017 and 2020.

A man who pleaded guilty to assaulting six Indigenous teens in a Northern Manitoba community will spend 20 years in prison. the Canadian Press has reported.

Arnold Collier, 54, was sentenced in Thompson Dec. 1 to 22 years minus time served for the offences.

The victims were all Indigenous and under the age of 16. 

Collier admitted in September to sexually assaulting the boys between 2017 and 2020. He also pleaded guilty to breaching court orders resulting from a previous conviction. He was convicted of sexual interference in 2018 and ordered not to have contact with children or the victim of that offence.

There is a court ban on publishing information that could identify victims or witnesses so the location where the assaults occurred is not being reported.

The defendant, who is originally from New Brunswick, moved back and forth from his home province to the Northern Manitoba community where he worked as a mechanic.

The assaults came to light in the summer of 2020 when one of the boys he assaulted went to police. Others came forward and Collier was arrested.

Court heard that he would give the boys money, marijuana, beer and cigarettes and have them sleep over and that he would play pornographic videos for them. Collier would ask for sexual favours or perform sexual acts on them and some of them complied because they felt that if they didn’t he would stop giving them gifts. There was also testimony that sometimes Collier touched the boys while they were sleeping. Other witnesses testified that boys continued coming and going from Collier’s house after his 2018 conviction and that girls were not allowed at his house.

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