Loon Lake man jailed for luring, molesting boys
Warning: graphic content
Steven Joseph Lasas had a newborn in Saskatoon’s neonatal intensive care unit when he messaged a 10-year-old boy from a Ramada hotel room — where he was staying with his girlfriend — asking the boy for nude photos and arranging to meet him for sex.
The 26-year-old was arrested on Jan. 22 after the boy’s grandmother saw the sexually explicit messages and called police. Lasas eventually revealed that he had committed similar offences against two other boys over the past four months.
According to the facts presented this week in Saskatoon provincial court, Lasas was a drum teacher and basketball coach from the Loon Lake area who some of his victims considered a mentor.
He was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to luring, possessing child pornography and obtaining for consideration the sexual services of a 10-year-old boy, luring and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy, luring a 13-yearold boy, making sexually explicit material available to two of the boys and making child pornography of all three victims.
Lasas admitted, to police, that he participated in mutual masturbation with the 10-year-old boy over video chat and convinced him to send nude photos, Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli outlined in court. He also offered the boy $30 for sex, but the two never met up. Lasas said he initiated the conversations.
Investigators then found more sexual messages between Lasas and a 16-year-old boy on Lasas’ phone, including plans to have sex at basketball tryouts and a Round Dance.
Court heard the boy told police he and Lasas met up for oral sex at a Pow Wow. He said it was arranged by a person named “Naomi” on Facebook, who encouraged him to meet with Lasas and send her photos of their encounter.
Police noticed that a 13-yearold boy had also sent sexual images of himself to the same “Naomi” account. Officers discovered, through IP addresses, that Lasas was using the fake account as another way to lure his victims into sending child pornography.
He admitted creating two other fake accounts, pretending to be women, to communicate with about 20 people, who he said were mostly boys.
Morelli said there are likely more victims, but identifying them would be a complicated process that could take up to two years. However, she said any allegations made to police “will be fully investigated.”
The sentence was a joint submission from the Crown and defence, partly chosen so that Lasas, who said he was sexually assaulted as a child, can receive penitentiary programming, Morelli said. As part of his sentence, he is not allowed to be at parks, playgrounds and pools, he cannot seek any kind of position of trust over, or communicate with, anyone under the age of 16 (unless with special permission) or use social media for 10 years after his release.
Morelli argued the lengthy prohibition order is crucial to protect children.
Lasas told police that he stopped offending because of his newborn son. When officers pointed out that he had been messaging the underage boys after his son’s birth, Lasas had nothing to say.