Man gets 6 months for Internet luring
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/11/2015 (3045 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Kevin Schmidt claims he was living in a fantasy world — one where he believed he could say anything he wanted, to whomever he wanted.
But that’s not how the law works in Canada, where Schmidt, 50, has now been convicted of repeatedly trying to solicit sex from a girl he believed was 13 years old — but who turned out to be a veteran male RCMP officer conducting an undercover online sting operation.
“Your fantasy turned into a nightmare,” Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin said Friday in sentencing Schmidt to six months of jail under a joint-recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers.
Schmidt pleaded guilty to Internet luring and possession of child pornography after getting caught in a trap laid by members of the Manitoba Integrated Child Exploitation Unit (ICE) in 2012.
An officer, playing the role of the young teen girl, was contacted by Schmidt through a chat room he was in. The officer made it clear he was a 13-year-old girl, but that didn’t appear to deter Schmidt.
“The conversations at first are relatively benign. They turn explicit,” said Crown attorney Adam Bergen. Schmidt repeatedly discussed various sexual acts he’d like to perform on the girl.
Schmidt also tried to have live webcam chats so they could expose themselves to each other, but the officer “feigned malfunction” with his camera to avoid blowing his cover, court was told.
Police traced the computer IP address and conducted a raid on Schmidt’s home. They found him sitting behind the computer screen, A further search of Schmidt’s computer found five explicit videos of child pornography.
“I thought as long as it’s freedom of speech you can say anything you want. I thought in Canada we had the freedom to say what the hell we wanted,” Schmidt told officers.
The Crown noted that doesn’t fly when you specifically believe the person you are trying to groom for sex is a teenage girl.
“The notion my client would ever harm a child is repulsive to him. He had no idea talking dirty on the Internet was a crime,” defence lawyer Martin Glazer said Friday. “He never asked to meet who was at the other end of the line. He was mistaken in law. He’s not a pedophile, he’s not a child molester.”
Schmidt had been free on bail with strict conditions including no computer access or contact with children. He has no prior record and is self-employed.
“I’m ashamed of my actions,” he told court Friday.
www.mikeoncrime.com
Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.