A man convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy at a remote cabin in Nova Scotia has died in prison.

John Leonard MacKean, 65, was sentenced in June to two years in prison for sexual assault and communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.

Officials at the Springhill Institution confirm MacKean died of natural causes at the facility on Wednesday. They say police and the coroner have been notified and Correctional Service Canada will review the circumstances of the incident.

MacKean’s family has also been notified.

The boy’s mother says she feels bad for MacKean’s family, but is happy she won’t have to worry about him getting out of prison.

“As much as I don’t like what happened, I don’t necessarily want this man to die in prison away from his family,” she told CTV News on Thursday.

“I don’t want to think about how unfair it might have been when he got out in less than three years. I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

Still, she says she is frustrated she wasn’t informed of MacKean’s death, despite filling out paperwork giving her that right.

“I think there are flaws in the justice system and I think a lot of times once it’s gone through the court that the victims don’t matter so much,” she says.

“I think him and Wayne Cunningham got the easy way out.”

MacKean’s lawyer says he had serious health issues, but was still surprised to learn of his client’s death.

“Specifically related to his heart, he had undergone surgery in the past and I know that there were other issues developing or that had to be addressed, at least in the near future in relation to his heart,” says Mike Taylor.

During MacKean’s trial, his victim testified he had been held against his will at the cabin for eight days in Upper Chelsea, about 130 kilometres southwest of Halifax.

The teen said he was blindfolded and chained to a bed when a man performed oral sex on him in the cabin on Sept. 20, 2012.

The youth said he was able to determine from a limited view beneath the blindfold that the man was a balding, heavy-set man who wore glasses.

Another man accused in the case was sentenced last June to 11 years in prison.

David James LeBlanc pleaded guilty to kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, uttering threats and breach of conditions.

LeBlanc was arrested in northern Ontario in September 2012 after a Canada-wide manhunt.

At the time, police were also searching for Wayne Alan Cunningham, 31, whose body was later found near the area where LeBlanc was arrested. Foul play was not suspected in his death.

An agreed statement of facts in LeBlanc's case said he offered the teen a painting job and drove him in a van from Halifax to Lunenburg County in September 2012 on the pretext of picking up supplies.

The youth later escaped and a woman reported seeing a barefoot teenager at her doorstep, chained at his wrists and ankles.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell and The Canadian Press