WARNING: This story references and contains details of child sexual assault.
Daniel Senecal was serving jail time for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy and then released early, in March. Within six months, he was arrested again — after first responders rushed to a Welland, Ont., home where a three-year-old girl had been seriously harmed.
The girl had been sexually assaulted sometime after 10 p.m. ET on Aug. 30, Niagara police said in a news release. Her family discovered her injuries the morning of Aug. 31, and she was taken to hospital and treated, police said.
They said footage from a nearby surveillance camera helped investigators identify and arrest Senecal, 25.
Senecal is now in custody, charged with sexual interference and aggravated sexual assault on a person under 16, break and enter, and choking and assault. The bail hearing was Wednesday and the matter was put over until Oct. 15 to give him more time to consult with a lawyer.
The 12-year-old boy’s uncle told CBC Hamilton his family was notified Senecal was released in March — six months earlier than the original 18-month sentence dictated for the sexual assault of the child.
“That’s not a lot of time to reflect,” said the uncle, who CBC is not naming to protect the 12-year-old’s identity. “My nephew will have to live with the trauma for the rest of his life. There’s no real justice in that sentence.”
The identities of the boy and the three-year-old girl are protected under a publication ban.
Since Senecal’s arrest on Aug. 31, reaction by community members and politicians has been swift and furious, with calls for justice for the girl and, after his criminal history came to light, for reform of the justice system.
Last week, a vigil was held in support of the girl and her family, and an online fundraising campaign has raised tens of thousands of dollars.
About 200 people attended a rally outside the St. Catharines courthouse Wednesday. Demonstrators called for harsher sentences for people convicted for sexual assault and for the National Sex Offender Registry to be made public, like they are in the U.S.
Some protesters could be heard calling for a “public execution” and others held signs in support of the death penalty.
Politicians call for changes to justice system
Jeff Burch, a New Democrat member of provincial parliament who represents Niagara Centre, is among elected officials urging changes to the criminal justice system and sentencing.
“The recent and deeply disturbing assault of a toddler in Welland has left our entire community shocked and heartbroken,” Burch said in a statement he shared on social media last week.
He said he’ll “continue to advocate” for harsher penalties to “keep dangerous offenders off our streets.”
Conservative MP Larry Brock, representing the nearby Brantford area, is calling for changes to the bail system, although Senecal was not out on bail while charged with the second sexual assault.
“This should never have happened,” Brock said. “Our justice system is letting dangerous predators back onto our streets while families pay the price.”
Police urge public to rely on ‘verified’ information
Questions have swirled about Senecal’s past convictions, the length of his sentence and if he was released from jail early.
Niagara police Chief Bill Fordy released a statement last week urging the public to “rely on verified sources” when it comes to this case and to respect the privacy of the girl.
“While we continue to work with our policing and government partners on bail reform, public records show that the suspect was subject to a probation order at the time of the offence,” Fordy said.
CBC Hamilton accessed those public records, as well as court audio from a 2024 sentencing hearing, to help establish what happened before Senecal was charged a second time in a child sexual assault case.
What the 1st sex assault case involved
In 2021, a 12-year-old boy was sleeping at a Welland house, where his uncle lived alongside several tenants, when he was “awoken abruptly with Daniel Senecal on top of him, pulling down his pants and underwear,” and then the boy was sexually assaulted by Senecal, Justice Janet Booy said during Senecal’s sentencing hearing March 6, 2024.
She’d found him guilty after a judge-only trial the year before.
“The assault was violent. He forcibly held [the boy] in place, choking him. He told [the boy] he was going to rape him,” Booy said.
Another resident heard the struggle, came out of her room and intervened, the boy’s uncle said.
After police arrived, Senecal, who was clearly intoxicated, tried to justify his actions as he was arrested, the St. Catharines court heard.
After the assault, the boy became withdrawn, no longer wanting to attend school, suffering nightmares and anxiety, and having difficulty trusting anyone, Booy said.
“In the past two years since the incident, he’s been a ‘complete wreck’ — very powerful words to describe the devastation he’s encountered,” she said.
‘I strongly regret my actions’
Senecal’s defence lawyer, Mark Evans, said his client struggled with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger’s syndrome — a development disorder that’s part of the autism spectrum — as well as alcoholism.
In court, Senecal apologized to the boy and his family, stating he hadn’t had a drink in nearly two years and was ready to change his life.
“I strongly regret my actions from that night,” he said. “I wish I could take it back, but I can’t.”
While the defence argued Senecal should be incarcerated for 12 months, the Crown advocated for four years, given the boy’s young age and the trauma Senecal had caused.
Booy ultimately decided on 2.5 years, but gave Senecal credit for the time he spent in pretrial custody and on bail, leaving him with about 18 months to serve in jail. He was also added to the National Sex Offender Registry for 20 years.
That sentence meant he would’ve been released from jail at the end of August 2025, but was released six months early, in March, according to the boy’s uncle.
He said in the interview that Senecal should’ve been sentenced to a much longer time incarcerated so he could undergo psychological testing, and treatment and rehabilitation to reduce his risk of offending again.
But Booy told the court she took into consideration Senecal’s “youthful” age of 24 and “commended” him for not drinking alcohol for “such a long period of time.”
She said his Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD diagnoses were a mitigating factor “that directly goes to Daniel Senecal’s moral culpability.” She noted he did not have a prior criminal record.
But Senecal had been accused of other crimes.
In 2020, he was charged with assault, but it was withdrawn as he entered into a peace bond, court records show.
The next year, he was charged with mischief after damaging a surveillance camera at a Niagara Falls motel with a pellet gun. A witness saw him “peeking into” a ground floor room window and attempting to break in, although it was not revealed why, the court heard at the sentencing hearing.
The same day he was sentenced for the sexual assault of the 12-year-old boy, he pleaded guilty to the mischief and a failing to comply charge in relation to the peace bond.
Booy sentenced him to one year of probation on request of both the defence and Crown, after he served his jail time. When he was arrested on Aug. 31 in the sex assault case involving the young girl, he was on probation.
Child abuse cases not taken ‘seriously enough,’ expert says
How long perpetrators of sexual violence against children should be sent to prison has been the subject of debate in Canadian courts, says University of British Columbia Prof. Janine Benedet, a legal expert in these types of cases.
She told CBC News she was speaking generally and doesn’t know all the facts that went into Senecal’s sentencing.
“The Supreme Court of Canada has made it very clear that sentences for child sex offences need to increase — that we haven’t been treating these crimes seriously enough or fully appreciating the harms to the victims,” she said.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
