The Crown appealed acquittals on written child pornography and child luring charges arising from an online undercover operation in which the respondent exchanged sexualized messages with a person repeatedly presenting as a 14-year-old girl.
The court held that the trial judge erred in law by isolating sexually explicit messages from their full context, by treating the absence of explicit age references within particular messages as dispositive, and by allowing the respondent’s claimed role-play motive to distort the objective inquiry under s. 163.1(1)(b) and (c) of the Criminal Code.
The court further held that the trial judge misapplied the mens rea for child luring, wrongly focused on whether the respondent intended to commit the secondary offences at the meeting, and failed to consider wilful blindness in the age analysis under s. 172.1 and Morrison.
The acquittals were set aside, findings of guilt were entered on all counts, and a new trial was ordered on all counts limited to entrapment and sentencing.
