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Hip-Hop Dance Teacher Gets Five-Month Sentence

Hip-Hop Dance Teacher Gets Five-Month Sentence
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The mother of disgraced Edmonton hip-hop dance instructor Oliver Damaso was on her knees praying and clutching a Bible during her son’s sentencing hearing Thursday.

Then, when Justice Darlene Acton handed the convicted sex offender a five-month jail term, followed by a year on probation, the distraught woman slumped to the floor and began sobbing loudly.

Even many minutes later, after her son had already been led away by a court sheriff, the woman was still bawling and repeatedly saying, “Please give me back my son.”

Damaso, 30, was earlier found guilty of sexual exploitation for having an illicit affair with a 16-year-old female dance student three years ago.

However, Acton acquitted him of a related charge of sexual assault.

The judge noted the victim was not forced into submission with violence or intimidation, but said it was aggravating that Damaso had been in an exploitative relationship with the girl as a result of being her dance teacher.

“This is a case of sexual abuse and the victim’s sexual integrity has been compromised,” Acton said, adding that it was also aggravating that Damaso did not use a condom.

The judge cited a psychiatric report prepared on Damaso which concluded he was sexually and socially immature and noted he had lost the dance career that he loved.

Damaso had at one point taught at The Art of Dance studio in Campbell Business Park.

During the sentencing, Acton also noted the girl and her mother had expressed “pain and anxiety” in their victim impact statements and the girl had written she was no longer a happy person and often cried uncontrollably.

The girl also wrote she cannot go back to the dance studio because she thinks everyone there hates her.

When she convicted Damaso on March 29, Acton ruled he had groomed the victim by insinuating himself into a relationship with her and texting her personal messages.

The judge also ruled it was not a typical teacher-student relationship and she didn’t find Damaso to be in a position of authority, but said he had set the younger girl up for a sexual affair.

Acton also found at the time that the “older” Damaso was seen as “cool” to the teen and like a “hero figure.”

At trial, court heard Damaso had sex with the girl at her family’s home on April 18, 2009, after being friends for about a year.

The pair met when the teen began taking dance classes under Damaso’s instruction at the 3rd Street Beat studio. Damaso was fired from his position after being charged.

The teen, who can’t be identified under a court-ordered publication ban, testified she told him to stop, but said he was trying to get her to continue when the doorbell rang.

Damaso testified he had stopped and was asking her how she was doing when the bell rang.

— TONY BLAIS, Sun Media News Services