A 74-year-old Shuswap pastor who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl he had befriended through the church has been handed a sentence far below what the Crown sought.

Yesterday, May 5, at the Salmon Arm courthouse, Pastor William Paul Paquette, who goes by the name Paul, avoided a jail cell after court heard how his actions had a devastating effect on the young woman’s life.

The court heard how the victim – whose name is covered under a court-ordered publication ban – was rejected and alienated by the church when she reported the sexual assault.