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WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual assault.
The Crown Attorney’s Office will seek a dangerous offender status for a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in June to sexually assaulting a toddler in Welland, Ont., causing what were described as potentially life-threatening injuries.
Daniel Senecal used a weapon to sexually assault the girl, Ontario Justice David Andrew Thomas ruled at a Friday hearing at the St. Catharines courthouse, where the courtroom was filled to capacity and a second courtroom broadcast the proceedings to an overflow crowd.
The victim was three at the time of the assault. Her identity is protected under a publication ban.
Senecal was 26 when he pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, aggravated sexual assault on a person under 16, sexual interference, assault by choking, failing to comply with probation and possessing child sexual abuse exploitation material.
Senecal’s lawyer and the Crown Attorney’s Office had disagreed on whether the assault involved a weapon.
That factor could impact the length of his sentence and whether the court applies a dangerous offender status, which can result in the offender being kept in indefinite detention.
Severe injuries inflicted on a child
Court heard earlier that on the evening of Aug. 30, 2025, Senecal had several drinks and, sometime between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. ET the next day, broke into the girl’s home and sexually assaulted her.
Senecal was arrested on Aug. 31 in the backyard of his residence after police were sent to a home in Welland for a “medical assistance call involving a child.”
In late June, court was told about the severe injuries inflicted on the child, which her mom discovered the morning of Aug. 31.
Assistant Crown Attorney Todd Morris said that after the assault, the victim was taken to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, where medical staff identified the injuries as consistent with use of force and strangulation.
Thomas said on Friday that expert testimony noted the toddler’s injuries were “potentially life-threatening.”
Senecal’s roommate, Brittany Duclos-Robins, told the court in July that the morning after he broke into the home, he admitted to her that he used the weapon, something she told police 11 days after the crimes were committed.
The St. Catharines courthouse is shown on Friday after a judge ruled that registered sex offender Daniel Senecal used a weapon in a sexual assault of a three-year-old Welland, Ont., girl. (Paul Forsyth/CBC)
Thomas said he found Duclos-Robins — who has been friends with Senecal since childhood — to be “a very credible and reliable” witness.
“She was steadfast in what he said to her,” he said.
Thomas also noted surveillance camera photos showed the weapon in Senecal’s pocket as he broke into the girl’s home and then him carrying it out after the assault.
Combined with the earlier testimony of Dr. Valerie Bloomfield, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist who treated the toddler for her injuries at McMaster Children’s Hospital, the Crown proved “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a weapon was used in the assault, Thomas ruled.
Dangerous offender application coming
Morris said the Crown Attorney’s Office can now proceed with its application for dangerous offender status for Senecal. The next proceedings in the case are scheduled for Dec. 10.
The dangerous offender designation is reserved for Canada’s most violent criminals and sexual predators.
Senecal was on probation at the time of his crimes for what the judge described as a “violent” sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy in 2021. He was released from prison early in March 2025 after serving a partial sentence.
Senecal is also in the National Sex Offender Registry.
The case garnered widespread community outrage across the Niagara Region, with calls for criminal justice reforms and harsher sentencing for sex offenders.
Since then, reforms to Canada’s bail and sentencing system have become law, receiving royal assent earlier this month. Bill C-14, the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act, amends the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the National Defence Act to tighten the bail and sentencing framework across all three.
Bikers and supporters of a far-right extremist group have also held rallies demanding justice for the girl, prompting police to warn against “vigilante actions.”
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.