Former Alberta bishop sentenced to prison for historic sex assaults

By Derek Craddock

Posted September 18, 2020 6:44 am.

Last Updated September 18, 2020 6:45 am.

LETHBRIDGE – A former bishop of a Mormon church in southern Alberta has been sentenced to five years in prison for multiple sexual assaults on two girls in the 1980s and 90s.

Marvin Ross Harker, 52, was convicted in December of two counts of sexual assault.

A Lethbridge court heard the abuse took place from 1986 and 1993, when the victims were between the ages of eight and 13, near the hamlet of Diamond City.

Harker was a bishop with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the nearby town of Raymond when allegations were made against him in 2016, and he was removed from his role.

Justice Johnna Kubik says Harker has lived an exemplary life since the assaults, but his moral blameworthiness is high.

She ordered Harker to submit his DNA and for his name be added to the national sex offender registry.

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