Shawn Kayaitok outside the Iqaluit courthouse on Thursday. (CBC)

An Iqaluit court heard emotional testimony Thursday from the family members of two children who were sexually assaulted and another child who was murdered by a man in the Nunavut community of Kugaaruk.

Shawn Kayaitok, 23, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to second-degree murder in the March 2006 death of a girl, 5, who cannot be identified under a publication ban. He had originally pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Kayaitok also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two boys, aged seven and 14, in separate incidents prior to the girl's murder.

During the sentencing hearing, which took place Thursday afternoon at the Iqaluit courthouse, the families of the victims appeared by video link from Kugaaruk.

Permanent damage

Three women, including the slain girl's mother, wept as they each told the court how Kayaitok had inflicted irreversible damage to their lives and the lives of their children.

Wearing a blue sweatshirt, Kayaitok sat slouched and emotionless throughout Thursday's proceedings. He had nothing to say to the victims' families.

Both Crown and defence lawyers agreed that Kayaitok should serve 18 years in prison for the second-degree murder before he's eligible for parole, as well as seven years for the two sexual assaults.

The 18-year term, without eligibility for parole, would be the longest sentence for a second-degree murder conviction in Nunavut's history.

Nunavut court Justice Robert Kilpatrick said he would reserve his decision until next week.

Described as predator

Lawyers also spent Thursday reading out the facts of Kayaitok's three crimes, all of which took place in Kugaaruk, a remote community of 700 located 1,088 kilometres west of Iqaluit.

Crown prosecutor Judy Chan told the court that Kayaitok is a predator who seeks out and isolates his victims before assaulting them.

In late 2005, Kayaitok took a boy, 7, as he walked home from school, brought him to a church building and sexually assaulted him, court was told.

In January 2006, a boy, 14, left his house to check the mail when Kayaitok took him to a cabin and sexually assaulted him.

After Kayaitok was charged in that incident, he was released back into the community on various conditions, court was told.

Then, on March 9, 2006, Kayaitok was playing road hockey when he spotted the five-year-old girl on a bicycle.

Court was told Kayaitok persuaded the girl to come to a nearby dark shack, where he smothered and sexually assaulted her. The next day, a search party found the girl's body, fully clothed, face down in an empty water tank.

After local RCMP interviewed Kayaitok on March 15, 2006, an officer followed Kayaitok outside as he smoked a cigarette, court was told.

The officer picked up the cigarette butt, which yielded DNA evidence that linked Kayaitok to samples taken from the girl. Kayaitok was arrested on March 30, 2006, and charged with first-degree murder.