Man charged with child luring

[gameover]

Barrie police and OPP officers weren't the 15-year-old an Orillia man was expecting to see when he showed up at a meeting previously arranged online, Monday.

City police partnered with Orillia OPP under the umbrella of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit and used social media to approach online predators under the guise of being a 15-year-old.

Police say officers developed the online personality and soon began speaking with a 42-year-old man who eventually arranged a meeting at an undisclosed Barrie location around 4:30 p.m. Monday with what he thought was a teenager.

"It was police initiated investigation as part of the provincewide program targeted at online predators," Const. Melanie Turner said. "The investigation took place through online media where an officer impersonated a 15-year-old."

Police didn't say what gender the officer pretended to be or key details about how the "relationship" started, but Turner said the meeting was arranged shortly after contact was made in cyberspace.

"There's so many nooks and crannies on the web, so that's why we are looking for these people," she said. "Our unit is extremely busy and always working."

With the help of a provincial grant, the ICE unit has the freedom to delegate officers in the virtual world and task them with the roll of finding adults who may be using online services to take advantage of children.

"The objective is to keep children safe and protect them from abuse, specifically on the Internet," Turner said. "This provincial task force partners local police up to track and locate online predators."

Turner couldn't speak to the man's intentions, or give information regarding how police execute an operation of this nature, but she did say an arrest of this calibre could led police to investigate his home for evidence which could result in further charges if a warrant turns up evidence.

"(Investigating the man's computer) may be another part of the investigation," Turner said. "There is potential for more charges, but if we find more evidence we may have to get another warrant, depending on the circumstances the evidence is found."

The man is charged with child exploitation-luring and was held for a bail hearing Tuesday.

No for link due to it being unsafe

[TenderLover]

Occasional reminders like this help us all to stay safe.  Hate to read it though. 

Tender Lover

[Gaki]

For those keeping up with the penalties for offenses, the post that gameover is linking is from Ontario, Canada.

So far all he has is charges for 'Child Luring'.  Although, I wonder how long it took for the officer - ahem, sorry teenager - to agree to meet, whose idea it was, and whether there was any leading dialog from the officer.

We will never know until/unless that chat log becomes public domain - which it should since it does not involve any minor whatsoever.  However, it does not look good.  Naturally, the LEA will search his house and computers - which one would hope is secure using TrueCrypt or something of that nature.

Police didn't say what gender the officer pretended to be or key details about how the "relationship" started, but Turner said the meeting was arranged shortly after contact was made in cyberspace.

According to this, it seems that there was not much need to 'lure' as the officers were quite willing to spring and get the man.  Perhaps, with a good lawyer, this will help to minimize the sentence of the person silly enough to meet someone without verification of some sort.

Turner couldn't speak to the man's intentions, or give information regarding how police execute an operation of this nature, but she did say an arrest of this calibre could led police to investigate his home for evidence which could result in further charges if a warrant turns up evidence.

What 'calibre' of arrest is this?  I do not understand that phrasing at all.

Seems to me if he was unwilling to discuss the intentions or how the police executed the 'operation', that it seems quite dubious as to how this man was entrapped caught. 

A precient reminder to be cautious of online contacts, only deal with them if there is sufficient verification of who they are (which is next to impossible in our world) and to ensure that other aspects of your life are completely hidden and encrypted to prevent further fallout if you are caught.

Thanks for the article, gameover.
o.0

[Neighbor]

Occasional reminders like this help us all to stay safe.  Hate to read it though.  :(

Tender Lover

Albert Einstein is said to have stated:  "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

I'm afraid the original poster has, if anything, understated the case. I carried out a brief search, and found about half a dozen cases in the Canadian province of Ontario alone during the last 4-6 months, where about a dozen men were apprehended and charged with child luring.

Neighbor

[GLover]

I suppose the scant information is due to the case not having gone to trial yet, so we shall have to wait, but it begs the question as to whether the man would have met with any teenager if the "15yo" did not exist. Did the officer initiate contact but keep it clean, or did the man do so? There are many hypotheticals here, but we will not know anything else until the trial is over.

Looking at the scant information here, he's probably looking at a minimum of 12 months in prison, although he will likely get 24 months, as this is the norm, but we know nothing of the mitigating or aggravating factors, nor of the opinion of the judge in the case, which can make a large difference.

[gameover]

Your welcome guys and thanks guys for your comments and thinking critically on the article. It seems "child luring", entrapment, is the new game here. As you have already noted, there have been dozens of charges. 

And while we can percieve it as "low hanging fruit", I simply cannot write it off as such. Indeed, since they pretended to be  15 which is hardly a child, they should make the chat logs public but I know they won't. It's dirty politics. If the police have to stoop so low as to 4chan troll the chat lines then there is a problem with the system.  Further more, while they waste time with this real rape cases go unsolved.

That pisses me off to no end.

And what about the man. What if he was lonely that many of us here have faced and decided to reach out to create his own happiness? Correct that he did it wrong. But given the posts I have read here, not everyone has a youg little girl friend and like anyone else, would hit the dating scene and that includes chat lines to meet that special someone as we are no different.

I can see me or someone reaching out digitally after our own special little friend has moved on. That wanting to reconnect and to rediscover someone anew and obviously comes with risks as noted with my OP.

And yet the police will sit there and ruin our lives while they sit on their fat arses!!!


Idk.  Maybe a guide should be set up about how to carefully avoid this situation while conducting conversations on the web. But it does give us fair warming that they are there and they are pa(troll)ing

[anonymous713]

I could never understand how these cases could be upheld time and time again. There was no victim involved, only a cop posing as a young girl. It seems like a clear cut case of entrapment but I continually hear of stories like this leading to prosecution.

I have an idea, instead of wasting their time posing a young girl online ( I wonder if they get some cheap thrill from that. :s ) why don't they go and work on the countless missing children cases that are out there.

I guess that's too much work for them.

[Gaki]

I could never understand how these cases could be upheld time and time again. There was no victim involved, only a cop posing as a young girl. It seems like a clear cut case of entrapment but I continually hear of stories like this leading to prosecution.

This is similar to so many cases of cops posing as prostitutes to charge and convict men soliciting.  I am unsure how this works, but I assume the legalistic mechanisms are similar. 

why don't they go and work on the countless missing children cases that are out there.

I guess that's too much work for them.

I think perhaps it is a little like the lottery or Roulette....  hoping that the small amount of work will lead to a big payoff - the proverbial Child Slavery ring where they go to someone's house and find 100s of children deemed missing.  Alas, we all have dreams, I suppose, even LEA.

o.0

[happydaddy]

It's no different than cops posing as drug-dealers, or leaving bait-cars in bad neighborhoods.  They can pretend to be whoever or whatever they want and setup any kind of setting they like as a trap. It's not entrapment as long as they don't encourage the victim. Sometimes it sucks, but its the way the legal system works.

[gameover]

It's no different than cops posing as drug-dealers, or leaving bait-cars in bad neighborhoods.  They can pretend to be whoever or whatever they want and setup any kind of setting they like as a trap. It's not entrapment as long as they don't encourage the victim. Sometimes it sucks, but its the way the legal system works.

By them pretending to be a 15 year old in the first place makes it entrapment. I don't agree with them pretending to be prostitutes or leaving a bait car there either.  Doing those things is encouraging the crime

[hcgirlfan]

Why, oh why, oh why with all the articles in the news to people still think it is a good idea to go and meet an allegedly underage girl on the promise of sex? Dear, oh deary me.

[gameover]

Why, oh why, oh why with all the articles in the news to people still think it is a good idea to go and meet an allegedly underage girl on the promise of sex? Dear, oh deary me.

I understand and get what you are saying.  But imagine being lonely and desperate...

[poptart]

Just wait until a vigilante group uses the same tactic to lure a pedo to their death... then what?  Do you think the vigilante members who murdered the pedo will be charged for LURING or will they get off with murder in the name of child protection?

[hcgirlfan]

I understand and get what you are saying.  But imagine being lonely and desperate...

That's very true but you forgot to add 'and unable to control certain desires'. Lost of people (myself included) have been or are lonely and desperate but even so a 14yo girl offering sex as a means of comfort, given all the hype in the media, surely should set off alarm bells, Okay if you are a 12/13 year old boy who is excited about the prospect but an adult should know not to do so.

[Luftëtari]

There is no explanantion of anything. Sounds like nothing will come of this. Just a smeer campaign and witch hunt. Believe me if he was meeting for sex they would have had no qualms about mentioning it in the article. I find it funny that if she was a year older in certain states he could have legally had sex with her in any way they both consented to. However since she is a year too young they throw the book at him.