A man was sentenced to 19-months in jail after a Nanaimo family returned to find it had been occupied by squatters. (Allison Greenway)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

jail sentence

Man jailed after found squatting in badly damaged Nanaimo home

Dec 17, 2020 | 4:35 PM

NANAIMO — A prolific criminal was jailed after pleading guilty to occupying a Nicol St. home.

Sean Damien Kulai, 40, was sentenced on Tuesday, Dec. 15 at provincial court in Nanaimo to 19 months in jail and two years probation for the Sept. 7, 2020 incident.

He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of being in a home without lawful excuse, as well as a separate break and enter from mid-July.

A harrowing series of events were relayed to NanaimoNewsNOW by Allison Greenway, who said their family of four had returned to their torn apart home on Sept. 6 following a three week vacation.

Squatters had badly damaged the home during their absence.

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“It was such a mess, it was ruined. They’d set up and went through everything,” she said. “They tore our marriage certificate in two, they cut the voice boxes out of the kids stuffies. They were in our kids’ beds. Why would someone do that?”

The next day Greenway’s husband returned to the home to find a man, later identified to be Kulai, hiding in the children’s closet.

Nanaimo Mounties were called and Kulai was arrested.

“I don’t know how I’m going to make their room feel safe again,” Greenway said. “They know a man was taken out of their closet. How do I fix it? They’re still scared to go home and I don’t blame them.”

A little more than $14,000 was raised for the family through a GoFundMe campaign to replace damaged items, buy school supplies and clothes and cover home security improvement costs.

Kulai has an extensive criminal history in Nanaimo dating back 20 years, having been jailed primarily for violence and property crimes.

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