Man guilty of faking Facebook profile to lure and ‘sextort’ teen

Abdul Rehman Jat tricked a teen girl into sending him nude photos, threatened to send the photos to her friends and family if she didn’t have sex with him and took no steps to determine her age, a Queen’s Bench judge has found.

Even if Jat didn’t send every message from the two fake Facebook accounts used to ‘sextort’ the girl, “(He) admitted that he knew that the messages were created using his cellphone and that he was aware that they were being sent to (the victim),” Justice Neil Gabrielson ruled on Tuesday.

“I am satisfied that Jat was both a participant and also aided in the offence,” he concluded.

Following a trial that adjourned for several months, Gabrielson convicted Jat, 22, of luring, possessing and distributing child pornography and extortion for creating a fake Facebook profile in July 2016, when he was 19 years old, and using the account to convince a 17 year-old girl to send nude photos.

He then told her he would leak the photos if she didn’t have sex with “a guy,” court heard. The girl told her mom, who reported it to police and Facebook, which locked the fake account.

Cpl. Jared Clarke, former Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) investigator, took over the girl’s Facebook account when a second fake profile sent her the nude photos, demanding sex with “Abdul” in exchange for not disseminating them.

A search warrant was executed after the accounts were traced to Jat’s cellphone. The defence argued the way police obtained Jat’s address was a charter breach, but the application was dismissed.

At his trial, Jat testified that his friend created the fake accounts and used his phone to obtain the girl’s nude photos and send her messages.

Gabrielson said Jat’s testimony contradicts what he told Clarke following his arrest, including that he harassed the victim, asked for nude photos and made the fake accounts. He also wrote the girl a letter apologizing for “making problems for you.”

During Jat’s trial in April 2018, a voir dire was held to determine the admissibility of the statements he made to Clarke. Gabrielson ruled they were voluntary and applied the evidence to the trial proper.

A forensic psychiatrist diagnosed Jat with having a “mild intellectual disorder.” On Tuesday, defence counsel consented to Jat being taken into custody prior to sentencing so he could receive an NCR (not criminally responsible) assessment.

The defence argued Jat may not have appreciated the nature and consequences of his acts if he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the offences. A provision in the Criminal Code of Canada allows for an NCR assessment after a finding of guilt, but before the conviction is entered in preparation for sentencing.

Gabrielson granted the assessment, ordered Jat into custody and adjourned the case until April.