A 51-year-old Lethbridge man has been handed his sentence stemming from a gruesome incident of sexual assault and human trafficking of three teenage girls. A trial was avoided after the subject, Skye Atoa, pleaded guilty to all charges this week.
This came from an incident dating back to December 2025 where police were given reports of three missing girls. They tracked a report from one missing 14-year-old girl to an apartment downtown where they found her in medical distress and the discovery of the two other girls, ages 15 and 16.
The accused lured the three victims to his apartment offering money, drugs and a place to sleep and shower. An agreed statement of facts indicated the 14-year-old girl, referred to as Victim 1, was sexually assaulted and exploited in numerous occasions between December 16th and 19th.
The two other victims were each lured inside sometime after victim 1 arrived. Atoa threatened them if they tried to leave saying “his boys” would go after them. When police showed up at his apartment, Atoa lied claiming Victim 1 was his daughter. After discovering the girl was assaulted, Atoa was arrested, and the two other girls were found during a search warrant.
After initially pleading not guilty an all charges, Atoa switched his stance to guilty on Wednesday. The crown prosecutor said the victims deals with flashbacks, and that not having to move forward with a trial gives them a reprieve of not having to testify and reliving their experiences.
Atoa was handed five years on the recommendation of the crown and defence. It includes five years for human trafficking of a person under 18, five years for sexual contact with a child under 16, one year each for the three counts of unlawful confinement, one year for indecent exposure to a child under 16 and one year for sexual counselling of a child. All are to be served concurrently.
He has been in custody since January 13th, 2026. With time served in custody prior to his sentencing amounting to time-and-a-half’s worth (375 days), he has barely under four years remaining on his sentence.