Robert McMynn said that listening to the judge's comments, he feared at first that the sentences would be lighter. (CBC)

A Vancouver father says he is pleased with the sentences given to three men in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday for the kidnapping and confining of his son.

Justice Arne Silverman sentenced Jose Hernandez to 12 years in prison and Anh The Nguyen to 13 years for kidnapping university student Graham McMynn.

Both were also sentenced to eight years for unlawful confinement, which is to be served concurrently.

Their accomplice, Sam Van Vu, was sentenced to eight years for unlawful confinement.

Graham McMynn's father Robert said he was glad to see the three did not get lighter sentences.

"Listening to the judge's comments, my feeling was he was going to give less. So in the end, I was pleased they got as much as they did," he said.

Sentences intended to denounce and deter

In explaining the sentences, Justice Silverman said he had two overriding concerns: to denounce the crimes that were committed, and to deter future criminals.

Graham McMynn was grabbed at gunpoint in April 2006 as he and his fiancée, Jacklin Tran, were driving to the University of British Columbia. (CBC)

Silverman said the latter is especially important, given current public concerns about a wave of gun and gang violence that has swept through the Lower Mainland.

The judge outlined a number reasons, however, why he didn't impose harsher sentences.

They include the fact the kidnappers didn't physically hurt McMynn, their youth, and their clean records, which made them prime candidates for rehabilitation.

The three men have already spent 34 months in custody, which the Crown agreed will count for double-time, thereby reducing their sentences by 5 years and 38 weeks each, according to current sentencing guidelines.

On Monday during the sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Richard Cairns had asked Silverman to hand down 18-year sentences to Hernandez and Nguyen. The maximum sentence for kidnapping is life in prison.

The Crown also asked for Vu to get the maximum for unlawful confinement — 10 years — because he joined Nguyen and Hernandez in mistreating, threatening and terrifying McMynn.

Kidnapped at gunpoint

McMynn, 24, was grabbed at gunpoint in April 2006 as he and his fiancée, Jacklin Tran, were driving to the University of British Columbia.

He was held for eight days, initially stripped to his underwear, bound, gagged, blindfolded with duct tape and kept in a closet.

A massive police operation involving hundreds of officers eventually freed him from a basement suite in suburban Surrey.

No ransom demand was ever made. His abductors claimed a second group had hired them and was handling negotiations.

Six people were arrested. Two other young men, including Vu's brother, were acquitted after a lengthy trial last year; another youth is scheduled to go on trial March 2.