WARNING: This story contains details related to child sexual assaults.
A former real estate agent in Surrey, B.C., has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexually abusing two children and recording videos of his abuse of the youngest victim.
Paul Atanassov, 28, pleaded guilty last April to one count of sexual interference and one count of making child pornography. At his sentencing hearing earlier this month, the court heard that Atanassov’s female victims were 12 and 14 years old at the time of the offences.
With credit for time served in custody since his arrest, Atanassov’s remaining sentence was reduced to 370 days.
The former Realtor was initially charged with 14 offences related to child exploitation, including sexual assault and child luring.
Crown prosecutors sought an eight-year prison sentence for the two charges to which Atanassov pleaded guilty, while his defence lawyer argued that a total sentence of three and a half years was appropriate.
Atanassov had no prior criminal convictions when he was arrested in July 2021, just weeks after he first had contact with the victims on the social media app Snapchat.
The court heard that Atanassov met with the 12-year-old girl on four occasions, offering her drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, in the spring of 2021, when he was 24 years old. He sexually assaulted her on three of those occasions and recorded video of two of the assaults.
Atanassov sent at least one of the videos to another minor, “apparently in an attempt to make her jealous,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Martha Devlin wrote in her sentencing decision.
The video soon found its way onto Instagram and was shared among the victim’s peer group. A teenager who saw the video sent it to the victim’s mother, who contacted police.
In the meantime, Atanassov met twice with the 14-year-old girl, again offering alcohol and drugs to her and her friends. On one occasion, Atanassov disrobed the girl and kissed her before she stopped the assault, Devlin wrote.
Investigators searched Atanassov’s home and vehicle at the time of his arrest, seizing multiple cellphones containing four sexual assault videos, as well as a document listing several names and corresponding numbers, including the name of the 12-year-old victim next to the number “12,” the court heard.
The girls did not provide victim impact statements to the court before the judge delivered her sentence.
“I have no doubt that both (victims) have suffered and will continue to suffer life-altering emotional and psychological harm because of Mr. Atanassov’s offending, as they mature into young women and proceed further in life,” Devlin wrote.
“Mr. Atanassov generally presents as an offender who, at the time of the offences, willingly engaged in careless, high-risk, self-indulgent behaviour and who had deficiencies in his moral compass.”
In addition to the prison term, Atanassov was sentenced to two years of probation and prohibited from having contact or communication with children under 16 years old.
