An Ontario Supreme Court of Justice has sentenced 62-year-old Bradley Britton to eight years in prison for the sexual assault of two women nearly four decades ago.
Court records showed that Britton assaulted N.G. on May 23, 1987, in Toronto, and A.N. in 1993 in Oakville, Ontario Province. Delivering judgment last Wednesday, Justice Conlan described the attacks as “historical offences” but stressed their seriousness.
“The gravity of these two offences is very significant. The degree of responsibility of this offender, Britton, is very high,” Justice Conlan said.
Britton received five years’ imprisonment for the Toronto assault and three years for the Oakville incident, to run consecutively, making up a global sentence of eight years. The judge said the punishments were deliberately moderated to respect the legal “totality principle” while acknowledging mitigating factors, but insisted that “a significant penitentiary sentence is the only reasonable disposition.”
According to case details, Britton broke into N.G.’s home between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., threatening her with a knife before sexually assaulting the then 28-year-old mother of three as her children and husband slept nearby.
In the Oakville case, Britton ambushed 20-year-old A.N. while she walked home, attacking her after hiding behind a gravestone. He ordered her not to tell anyone and warned he would be watching her.
Britton, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction but had not committed crimes since the assaults, was finally linked to the offences in 2023 through a combined investigation by Toronto and Halton police and expert genealogy testing in Texas, USA.
Justice Conlan noted that while the offences occurred years apart and under different circumstances, consecutive sentences were appropriate. “Overall, though, I am satisfied that the global sentence imposed is a fit one,” he ruled.