Bakker gets 10 years for sexual assaults

A former hotel worker in Vancouver was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for sexual assaults on prostitutes in British Columbia and on children in foreign countries.

Donald Bakker, the first person convicted under Canada's new sex tourism law, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault on Wednesday, avoiding a trial.

Three of the pleas involved attacks on women in British Columbia, the rest involved children in Asian countries.

His defence and the Crown prosecutor had jointly asked for the 10-year sentence.

Bakker has already served 18 months in jail, which will count as double time, meaning he will have seven more years in prison.

• FROM JUNE 1, 2005: Vancouver man pleads guilty to overseas sex charges

The 40-year-old man was originally charged with 22 counts of assault involving adult prostitutes and 16 counts related to children in a foreign country.

His case had been in pretrial arguments Wednesday when he asked to appear before a provincial judge. He pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual interference with children under the age of 14 in Southeast Asia, and three counts of sexual assault involving three B.C. prostitutes.

Enacted in June 2002, the federal law allows Canada to prosecute sex offences committed by Canadians in a foreign country, regardless of that country's laws.