Assiniboia, Sask., man pleads guilty to abusing children for decades in rural communities

CBC

15-05-2025

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Warning: this story contains references to sexual assault against minors.
An Assiniboia, Sask., man has admitted he sexually abused children for decades in small communities across southern Saskatchewan.
Richard John Dyke, 48, pleaded guilty to three sexual interference charges, six charges related to child pornography and one voyeurism charge on May 12 in Moose Jaw provincial court.
"The joint sentence submission recommended a period of 17 years of incarceration, less time spent on remand," Ministry of Justice spokesperson Kerri Ward-Davis said in an email.
"The submission also recommended lifetime sex offender registration and firearms prohibitions."
Judge Brian Hendrickson will rule May 21 on whether he accepts the joint submission. If he does, it would be the longest sentence for such crimes in the province's history.
Dyke initially faced 13 charges when he was arrested in November 2023 while living in Assiniboia, which is about 130 kilometres southwest of Regina. RCMP began investigating allegations of sexual assaults from the mid-2010s and officers eventually determined that three boys younger than 12 were sexually assaulted.
In May 2024, RCMP laid 60 more charges after further investigation into alleged sexual assaults of minors over an 18-year time span. RCMP said they identified 29 additional victims, all youth between the ages of 18 months and 17 years of age when the offences occurred, with the majority being male.
The alleged offences dated from as far back as 2005 to November 2023.
"The magnitude of this investigation has proven significant. Investigators have analyzed over one-and-a-half million pieces of digital evidence. They were obtained from 24 terabytes of seized electronic devices," Chief Supt. Ted Munro, the officer in charge of criminal operations for the Saskatchewan RCMP, told reporters at the time.
"If you were to take that evidence we located and you were to print that out, it will equate to a six storey building of paper."
The victims were located in the Saskatchewan cities and towns of Tisdale, Estevan, Coronach, Assiniboia, Gravelbourg and Swift Current, Munro said.
"Some of the victims came into contact with Richard Dyke while he attended the home-based daycares," Munro said.
Andrew Clements is a former prosecutor who handled child abuse cases in Saskatchewan, including that of Joseph Sproull from Marshall, Sask, about 240 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
Sproull was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography, two counts of making it and one count of distribution. He was also convicted on two counts each of sexual assault and sexual interference. Sproull was sentenced in February 2025 to 15 years.
Clements said that joint sentencing submissions can spare the young victims going to trial.
"It's obviously a very traumatic process," he said in an interview.
"It's always good to have a joint submission, so to have the Crown and defence reach a resolution together that both parties are satisfied with and, to receive 17 years, like I said, is the highest sentence in the province at this point and appropriately so."