The man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Makayla Chang in 2017 has now been sentenced.
Steven Bacon was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday afternoon.
His sentencing comes six years after the Nanaimo girl’s remains were found.
Chang’s family was in attendance in the courtroom on Friday, and broke out in cheers as Bacon was led away by sheriffs after his sentence was handed down.
Reading a tearful victim impact statement, her father Kerry Chang called Bacon a “cold-hearted bastard,” and described him as a “monster” and a “pedophile.”
Chang disappeared in Nanaimo on March 17, 2017, and two months later, police upgraded her disappearance to a homicide investigation when her remains were found.
Bacon was arrested in New Brunswick in September 2019 on unrelated charges after Nanaimo RCMP issued a national appeal for information on his whereabouts.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in August 2022, after the charge of first-degree homicide was downgraded.
Addressing the court Friday, Bacon admitted his actions were “horrible.”
“I have destroyed so much. There’s nothing I can do to make it better,” he said.
