Former 4 Wing corporal sentenced

for sex assaults on sleeping cadets

at summer camp
William Stodalka
Monday, November 28, 2011 4:53:21 MST PM

Ex-Cpl. Alex Lough is escorted by military police on the Cold Lake air base in northeastern Alberta to a
waiting
A former 4 Wing member has been sentenced to three years in a civilian federal penitentiary for assaulting three
teenage girl cadets at a summer camp.
The three victims, aged 16 to 19, were assaulted on Aug. 1, 2010 while attending a cadet training camp in Cold Lake,
Alta., 300 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Ex-Cpl. Alex Lough, a former member of 1 Air Maintenance Squadron (AMS) at 4 Wing, has pleaded guilty to
breaking and entering, sexual assault, and sexual assault with threats to a third party.
His sentence also includes a 10-year weapon ban and he will be forced to register as a sex offender.
Commander Peter Lamont, the judge presiding over the court martial at CFB Cold Lake, told the court that around 3
a.m. on Aug. 1, a drunken Lough drove to the unlocked buildings where the victims were sleeping.
He entered a building, found a young woman and pinned her down on the bed. She kicked him off and he fled.
Afterwards, she called 911.
Lough then broke into another building and assaulted another young cadet before moving on to his third and final
victim, a cadet instructor, in a separate building.
The instructor tried to resist, but Lough told her that if she continued to resist his advances, he would assault
someone else in the camp.
She cried out, "Stop, not my girls," according to the court.
The court heard that Lough was frightened off from continuing the assault by the lights of the arriving military police,
who arrested him as he was trying to get into his car to drive away.
The cadet instructor told the court in a statement that she was struck five to 10 times by Lough during his attack.
As a result, she now suffers permanent hearing loss in one ear, and a scratch on her cornea that has damaged her
vision.
She told the court that after the attack happened that she felt "ashamed" and that other cadets she was supposed to
teach could no longer take her seriously.
After the camp was over, she said she became clinically depressed and now suffers from a mild sleeping disorder.
Her relationship with her mother, whom she once considered her "best friend," has also suffered as a result.
One of the other two victims said in a written statement that because of the incident, she will no longer pursue a
career in the Canadian Forces.
"I don't want to live in this constant fear anymore," she said in her statement.
The defence noted that Lough was abusing alcohol at the time of the attack.
Lough wrote a letter of apology to the victims, saying that he did not target specific victims by design and they were
picked at random. "I really don't think that 'Sorry' can say how I really feel," said Lough in the letter. "I will never try
and make an excuse for this."
He later added in the letter that he hoped the victims would be "stronger, perhaps, for the experience."
LOUGH HAD HISTORY OF ALCOHOL ABUSE
Lt. Col. Luc Sabourin, Lough's commanding officer in 1 AMS, said that there was no indication Lough could be
capable of an act like this.
However, Sabourin said that in 2009, Lough admitted himself to a treatment facility for alcoholism.
He completed a 62-day course, then stayed sober for two months before relapsing, the court heard.

After his stint at the treatment facility, Sabourin said that Lough was shifted to working on technical publications for
maintaining aircraft and ensuring the manuals were up to date.
"We made sure he was not going to be a risk," said Sabourin.
"We expect a lot of our technicians."
At the time of the incident, he was still a CF member.
The defence said that in 2010, after he was arrested for the attacks, Lough attended another facility where he was
diagnosed with depression and a panic disorder, and has remained sober since then. He was dismissed from the
Canadian Forces last June because of the charges he was facing.
4 Wing Commander Col. Patrice Laroche said that despite checks made by the Canadian Forces, troubled members
like Lough can still get through the screening process on occasion.
"We try to hold our people to a high personal conduct," he said. "The men and women of the Canadian Forces do
such great work risking their lives day in and day out for Canadians...the truth is we are coming from our society and
in society we don't always have the best elements."
He also praised the MP's response, which helped prevent a bad situation from getting worse. "They were quick to
action to come to help," he said. "They helped the situation not get worse when the assaults were underway."