Donald James Gormley, 20, appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Georgetown for sentencing on two charges of communicating for the purpose of obtaining for consideration the sexual services of someone younger than 18.
Crown attorney Gerald Quinn read the agreed statement of facts that detailed similar circumstances involving three victims and incidents from 2015 and 2016.
The court heard Gormley sent a 15-year-old girl messages through Facebook offering her money for sexual images of herself.
She told the police Gormley also told her he would meet her for sex.
The victim took screenshots of the conversation and gave them to the RCMP.
Donald James Gormley, 20, appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Georgetown for sentencing on two charges of communicating for the purpose of obtaining for consideration the sexual services of someone younger than 18.
Crown attorney Gerald Quinn read the agreed statement of facts that detailed similar circumstances involving three victims and incidents from 2015 and 2016.
The court heard Gormley sent a 15-year-old girl messages through Facebook offering her money for sexual images of herself.
She told the police Gormley also told her he would meet her for sex.
The victim took screenshots of the conversation and gave them to the RCMP.
A second victim, who was 17 at the time, told police Gormley offered through Facebook to pay her for nude photos.
A third victim, who was 14 when Gormley contacted her, told police Gormley asked her to send him a photo of herself wearing a bra and offered to buy one of her bras for $50.
Gormley told police he asked the third victim to meet him in the hopes of having sex with her.
None of the girls sent photos or met with Gormley.
Before hearing the sentence, defence lawyer Yolande Murphy told the court her client was remorseful for his actions and said he didn’t know it was inappropriate.
In response, Orr referred to the ages of everyone involved at the time.
“I would think that he knew it wasn’t appropriate,” she said.
Orr said it was fortunate in this case the victims dealt with his requests in an appropriate manner so they weren’t victimized further.
She also said it was hard to understand how something of that nature could happen.
Orr sentenced Gormley to six months in jail on each of the two charges to be served concurrently.
He will be on probation for two years with several conditions that included a ban from owning or using any device that can connect to the Internet.
Gormley is also banned from using any Facebook account during his probation and must write apology letters to all of the victims.
He must provide a DNA sample for the national databank and will be under a weapons prohibition.
