21 months of jail time and then 27 months of probation – a sentence handed out today in Penticton Law Courts to a former businessman who pled guilty to two counts of sexual assault.

59 year Gary Leaman was sentenced today by Judge Gail Sinclair who said the assaults on two separate persons were not only unlawful but reprehensible.

Names of the victims not released because of a ban of publication on that and any detail that points to those persons.

Leaman was a former manager of a large mall and served one term on council 2002-2005.

The sexual assaults occurred in the period of 2009 and 2011. Judge Sinclair said this was a fall from grace – a hard landing and he stated he wanted his sentence to be long enough so that a mandatory sexual offender programme could be completed by Leaman while in the custody of the BC Corrections Branch at Ford Mountain Institute in Chilliwack.

Leaman told the court he had regret and remorse for his actions and accepted the sentence – being handcuffed and led to a waiting sheriff’s van. Leaman said he hoped the victims could heal and he promised not to re-offend. He said he now lives a very solitary life at Apex Mountain.

Judge Sinclair stated his role was to show denunciation of the crime and to provide some level of deterrence to society. He said the four years of jail and probation should go some way towards doing just that.