WARNING: This article contains details about a criminal sexual assault trial and may be disturbing to some readers. If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexual violence, contact Archway Society for Domestic Peace at 250-542-1122. All programs are easily accessible, free of charge and confidential.
Sentencing of a former chiropractor found guilty of sexual assault will wait until the new year.
Murray Kievit faces possible jail time stemming from a 2021 treatment session.
His sentence was to be heard on Monday, Nov. 24, but that has been delayed with Judge David Ruse now set to render his decision on Jan. 14, 2026.
Crown is calling for five months of jail time and Kievit's defence lawyer is pushing for house arrest.
Kievit, 61, was found guilty of one count of sexual assault on July 9, at which time he was found not guilty of a second instance of sexual assault.
Both counts had come from the same complainant in relation to two separate chiropractor treatment sessions that were two days apart in Vernon in December 2021.
At a sentencing hearing on Nov. 18, Justice Ruse heard submissions from Crown prosecutor Catherine Rezansoff and defence lawyer Michael Klein, and ultimately deferred his sentencing decision to allow time for him to weigh all that had been presented to him.
The victim, whose name is protected by a publication ban, offered an emotional and pointed impact statement to the court.
"I've been in this courtroom throughout the whole trial, never missing a day, because I've been desperately hoping that it might help me get back what was violated in me during my assaults -- stripped of my dignity, of my safety, and of my humanity. The day Murray Kievit sexually assaulted me, he left me feeling degraded and hollow," the victim said, fighting back tears.
"There is nothing I can ever do to change that. The pain of such a violation of my body is something I will grieve for the rest of my life. I stand here in front of you because you can't lose more than that."
Kievit was previously found by Justice Ruse to have touched the victim's pelvic area in a way that went beyond a professional capacity. He found that during a chiropractic treatment session, Kievit had pulled the victim's pants and underwear down below the top of her pelvic bone and sexually assaulted her by touching her vaginal area.
The preceding trial had centred on the issue of consent. During that trial, Rezansoff had asserted that based on his previous testimony, Kievit had been explaining what he was doing to the complainant as he was doing it, and that in order to have consent, he needed to explain what he would do before doing it, as is outlined in a B.C. chiropractor's handbook.