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Crown wants Robert Bumbacco assessed

Sudbury's Crown attorney's office will be seeking an application to order a psychological assessment to determine if a Sault Ste. Marie man should be tried as a dangerous or long-term offender.
Sudbury's Crown attorney's office will be seeking an application to order a psychological assessment to determine if a Sault Ste. Marie man should be tried as a dangerous or long-term offender.

Robert Bumbacco, 54, pleaded guilty Thursday 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, will return to court Tuesday when the Crown will initiate an application hearing for remand for assessment as outlined under section 752.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

If the court orders an assessment following Tuesday's hearing, Sudbury's Crown's office is expected to hold another hearing to try Bumbacco as a dangerous or long-term offender.

A dangerous offender application, if successful, means the accused is considered extremely dangerous and not able to function in society and could be locked up indefinitely.

A long-term offender application, if successful, gives police a broad range of powers to observe and control an offender once released from prison.

Assistant Crown attorney Alex Kurke read in an agreed statement of facts relating to the counts Bumbacco pleaded guilty to Thursday.

Justice Normand Glaude ordered a ban on publication of any evidence which could identify Bumbacco's teenage victim.

Court heard Bumbacco 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. Bumbacco started spending countless hours with the family's 14-year-old daughter.

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, said Kurke. During this time, Bumbacco was under court order to not leave Sault Ste. Marie or have any contact with any girl under age 18 without adult supervision.