A judge called the conditions on the Eden Valley Reserve deplorable before sentencing a teen from the First Nations reserve west of Longview for the murder of his uncle.

Judge Victor Tousignant agreed to impose an Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) order, a rare sentence that has only been applied in 25 cases across Canada. The order allows young offenders who have committed serious violent crimes to access programs and professionals they otherwise cannot in youth prisons. The Province funds the cost of the rehabilitation and has to approve an IRCS sentence before it is ordered in court and has strict requirements for the offender.

In this case an 11-page plan was submitted for the boy. Details of the plan cannot be made public.

All IRCS plans consist of four stages. The first is stabilization, which transitions into intensive rehabilitation, usually in a psychiatric facility. The offender then is moved into the community, typically in a group home and finally is allowed to live in the community.

Tousignant sentenced the boy to a five-year IRCS order, but gave him credit for the 22 months he has already spent in prison. The teen will spend another 14 months in prison and two years under supervision in the community. His progress will be reviewed after one year and again before he is released from prison.

During the sentencing Tousignant called the circumstances in Eden Valley “deplorable” and referred to a video taken by police at the scene of the murder.

“(The conditions) are really quite terrible,” he said. “And while they don’t provide an excuse for what happened the atmosphere was there to lend itself to what happened and that’s unfortunate.”

In the video police showed upwards of 40 knives or parts of broken knives strewn around on the ground in the immediate area.

In this case the teen used a knife to fatally stab his teenage uncle.

According to an agreed statement of facts submitted by the Crown prosecutor and the boy’s defense lawyers, the pair was drinking together at a home when they got into an argument. One boy left and went into another house and retrieved a knife. As he continued to walk away his uncle ran up and began beating him. The teen then stabbed his uncle once in the chest. The one stab wound was fatal.

The court also heard the teen was on the spectrum for fetal alcohol syndrome, but could not have a complete diagnosis without confirmation that his mother drank during the pregnancy.

Prior to imposing the sentence Tousignant addressed the teen. He confirmed the boy had no family visit him during his two years in prison. On Thursday only his caseworker, a mentor he works with at the detention centre, and two representatives from the solicitor general’s office were in the courtroom.

“I hope you know the people who are here are here because they care,” Tousignant told the teen.

He praised Crown prosecutor Binah Border and the teen’s lawyers, Diana Mah and Chris McAviney for their work to get the order in place.

The teen was assessed by a number of psychologists and tested for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome before the order could be approved.

The boy told the judge he wanted to change his life.

“I don’t want to do any more drugs or any more crime,” he said.

Mah said her client is having a hard time dealing with the fact he killed his uncle and has talked about it while in prison on a number of occasions. She added, he has always taken responsibility for his actions and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

She said she expects he will not return to the reserve.

“The setting from which (he) came is different than a stereotypical setting,” Mah said.

The boy’s uncle who was killed in the altercation had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was to be sentenced a week after his death. The names of the victim and the assailant cannot be published due the age of the boys.

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