ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — When RNC Const. Terry Follett posted an ad on a local adult personals site in 2017 posing as a teenage girl, he received plenty of replies from men.
“Teen girl involved in dance and cheer, long legs, lean body,” the ad read, and was accompanied by a selfie of a female from the lips down, wearing a bra and panties.
Ten men replied to the ad. Five of them got lost after the “girl” — a.k.a. Follett, who was then a member of a joint RNC/RCMP internet child exploitation team — told them she was 15 years old.
The 31-year-old Brown was one of a handful of men convicted in connection with that personal ad. As a result, he will serve a year in prison, becoming the latest to be sentenced for child-luring offences.
Brown had initiated a discussion with what he believed was the teenage girl about sexual acts and prices, exchanging sexually explicit messages with her over the following days, and sending her a photo of his penis. He spoke about payment for sexual acts and the possibility of meeting in person. When the “girl” told Brown multiple times of her age, he told her that he was cool with it.
Upon receiving a phone call from Follett, Brown turned himself in for questioning and was charged with multiple counts related to child luring.
“Parliament created this office to combat the very real threat posed by adult offenders who attempt to groom children by electronic means." — Judge Colin Flynn
He was convicted of three offences last January, despite arguing the police sting amounted to entrapment and telling the court he had known all along the person with whom he was chatting wasn’t really a 15-year-old girl. He testified he had just been trying to investigate the scam so he could expose it, but Judge Colin Flynn didn’t believe it.
Brown’s lawyer, Derek Hogan, had argued the mandatory one-year minimum jail sentence for each of the indictable crimes was not appropriate in this case, since the facts of the case didn’t meet the precedent for that minimum. The fact that there was no actual victim was important, Hogan argued.
Flynn disagreed, siding with prosecutor Erin Matthews and quoting from another Canadian judge’s sentencing decision in a prior similar case.
“It does not detract from the degree of responsibility of the offender or the offence,” Flynn said, explaining the belief that the communication is with a child and the intention to commit a crime is enough to warrant jail time.
Flynn noted the harmful effects child predators have on their victims, mentioning the devastating impacts on a child’s autonomy as well as their bodily and sexual integrity.
“Parliament created this office to combat the very real threat posed by adult offenders who attempt to groom children by electronic means,” Flynn said, quoting a prior decision. “The offence seeks to protect children by identifying predatory adults who, generally for illicit sexual purposes, troll the internet to attract (children).”
Flynn said Wednesday morning he believed a 12-month sentence for each of Brown’s charges — to be served concurrently — was reasonable and could satisfy the need for denunciation and deterrence of the crimes.
Brown, sitting in the front of the courtroom, nodded his head.
In Brown’s favour, Flynn said he had considered Brown’s lack of criminal record, his history of meaningful employment, and the fact he had not arranged to meet the teenager as mitigating factors when deciding on a sentence. On the aggravating side, Flynn noted the seriousness of the crimes and the sexually explicit photo Brown had sent to someone he believed was a child.
Along with jail time, Flynn ordered Brown to be registered as a sex offender for life and compelled him to submit a DNA sample to a national police database. He also ordered Brown to have no contact with anyone under 16 years of age by means of telecommunications for the next five years.