Judge must decide if man committed crime with teen talk
By TONY BLAIS, COURT BUREAU
Tue, January 10, 2006
Sex chat issue
Judge must decide if man committed crime with teen talk
By TONY BLAIS, COURT BUREAU
A 35-year-old city man admits he talked dirty with a 12-year-old Ontario girl he met online in an Internet chatroom, but denies he did anything criminal.
The police disagree and so does an Edmonton Crown prosecutor specializing in Internet crimes. Now, a judge will have to make the call.
Craig Legare is charged with invitation to sexual touching and luring a child under 14 on the Internet.
Yesterday, an agreed statement of facts was presented to Justice John Agrios and the case was put over to March 30 for him to rule on written arguments for both sides.
Court heard Legare made an invitation of a sexual nature to the Ontario girl, now 15, but the argument is over whether there was any intent on his part.
The issue is complicated because the Internet luring law is relatively new - it came into effect in 2002 - and there are relatively few previous cases in Canada.
Prosecutor Steven Bilodeau says the Crown's argument is that the conversation is the offence, while the defence is saying the legislation specifies it must be proven that there was intent to follow through on the words.
Bilodeau added he believes Legare will claim he was just saying things as part of a sexual fantasy.
According to agreed facts, the alleged victim lives with her older sister and their parents. She cannot be named.
On April 28, 2003, the girl was online in an MSN chatroom under her username "babystar." After being asked her age, sex and location, she responded that she was a 13-year-old female from a community near Toronto.
The girl then moved to a private chatroom for a conversation with Legare, who used the identity "oceans4surf" and claimed he was 17 despite being 32 at the time.
According to the agreed facts, the conversation "is almost entirely sexual and includes words uttered by both parties indicating a desire to engage in explicit sexual activity." At the end of the conversation, the accused writes, "and u r 14" to which the complainant replies, "im 13."
The girl also gave Legare her phone number and unsuccessfully tried to transmit a photograph of herself to him.
Legare then called her on the phone twice and said during the second conversation: "I would love to go down on you," an expression referring to oral sex. She hung up.
The girl's sister briefly spoke to Legare on the phone and told their parents about the call when they came home.
The girl's father became scared and called police.
City cops arrested Legare on Jan. 4, 2005, and seized his computer, but no illegal material was found. At the time, cops said Legare had asked the girl to send him panties.
According to the agreed facts, Legare admits the sexual nature of the communications and that he did not make a reasonable effort to ensure she was not under 14.
"It is not admitted by the accused, however, that he intended to commit a sexual offence with the complainant, nor that he intended to facilitate the commission of a sexual offence with the complainant."
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