By Keith Lacey
A convicted pedophile from Sault Ste. Marie has been ordered to undergo a psychological assessment before he's sentenced for sexually assaulting a Sudbury female minor.
Justice Normand Glaude approved a Crown request last week that Robert Bumbacco, 54, undergo a 60-day assessment by forensic psychologist Philip Klassen at the renowned Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. The assessment will begin March 22.
Bumbacco will make his next court appearance May 29. Sudbury's Crown attorney's office has the next several weeks to decide if it will seek either dangerous offender or long-term offender designation for Bumbacco.
Dangerous offender status, if ordered by a judge, could keep Bumbacco in jail indefinitely. Long-term offender status gives authorities special powers to closely monitor offenders once they are released from prison.
Ten days ago, Bumbacco pleaded guilty to one count of touching a 14-year-old girl for a sexual purpose and inviting the same girl to touch him for a sexual purpose. He also pleaded guilty to breaching a court order to not leave Sault Ste. Marie or be in the presence of any girl under 18 without adult supervision.
Bumbacco, who has a long history of convictions for sex-related crimes involving young girls, joined a Sudbury area church in the 1999 and by the fall of 2000 had become close friends with a family who were parishioners at the same church.
The family considered Bumbacco a close friend and he spent much time at their home and on family outings, court heard.
Bumbacco started spending countless hours with the family's preteen daughter and her teenage friends without parental supervision.
Eventually, Bumbacco started showering the girl with gifts, including toys, shoes, games and at one point offered to give her his personal computer.
Between Dec. 1, 2000 and Aug. 6, 2001, Bumbacco was alone with the girl and touched her breasts on numerous occasions, asked her to kiss him and told her he wanted to have sex with her.
On at least one occasion he exposed his penis and asked her to touch it, but she refused and Bumbacco never forced her to, court heard. He told the girl not to tell anyone as what was transpiring was "their secret." During the same time period, Bumbacco erected a tent in the family's backyard and one night entered the tent and fondled his victim under blankets, said Kurke.
During all of these events, Bumbacco was under court order to not leave Sault Ste. Marie or have any contact with any girl under age 18 without adult supervision.
Police were contacted when a family friend read part of the girl's personal diary and informed her parents.
Bumbacco was arrested Aug. 10 last year and has been in custody since.
The Crown withdrew several other sex-related charges last week filed after another young female complainant came forward with allegations against Bumbacco.
Bumbacco still faces one count of assault for an incident against another inmate inside the Sudbury District Jail Dec. 22, 2001.
Bumbacco has been sentenced to 30 months in a penitentiary in 1998 and one year in jail for a 1992 conviction, both in the Sault, for sex-related incidents with young girls.
Last October, Bumbacco was found not guilty of two counts of sexual assault involving two 11-year-old girls between 1996 and 1998.
