No jail for mom who sent explicit photos of child to predator

A B.C. woman has avoided jail time, despite sending explicit photos of her nineyear-old daughter to a man in Australia who turned out to be a pedophile.

The woman, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, pleaded guilty to one count of endangering the morals of her daughter, who also cannot be named.

In August 2016, the mom began an online relationship with the man, who is identified only by the initials G.H. in a ruling on the case.

The two communicated through Facebook messages, with the relationship eventually becoming sexually explicit.

G.H. tried to persuade the mom to involve her daughter in the online communications, asking her to allow the daughter to see his private parts. He also sought to have the mom allow him to see the daughter’s genitalia.

The mom sent G.H. two “selfie” photos of herself in bed with her daughter, taken using her cellphone. One of the photos showed the daughter sucking her mother’s nipple and looking in the direction of the camera.

In his ruling on the case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven said that it appeared the photos were sent to excite G.H., but also to appease his demands for more explicit material.

The judge said G.H. was skilfully manipulating the mother, who repeatedly expressed reservations and doubts during the conversations and attempted at one point to end the conversations but confessed to being “addicted” to G.H.

“Later, she returns to feelings of regret and recognition saying, ‘I fell in love with you wrongfully, you no longer have me under your spell. This evil ends today,’” the judge said.

The mother and G.H. discussed the possibility that the daughter’s father was involved in sexually inappropriate behaviour with his daughter.

After the mother ended her relationship with G.H., she told RCMP about the allegation that the girl’s father had engaged in inappropriate sex with his daughter.

But there was nothing to that allegation.

When the mother allowed RCMP to access her cellphone, they discovered text messages and photos that had been sent to G.H.

The mom was charged with five offences, but after a lengthy plea agreement had the case against her reduced to one count.

The Australian man, a known online predator, also was arrested.

Court heard the mother, who now is 49, had mental-health issues and had been hospitalized several times. After the police became involved, she lost custody of her daughter.

In imposing sentence, the judge noted that for some time before the crime, the mother was functioning well, but added that a psychologist found that her bipolar disorder played a role in the offence.

The Crown called for a sentence of six to nine months jail, but the judge said it was not in the interests of the daughter for the mother to be imprisoned.

“In fact, what is clearly in the interests of (the daughter) is that all appropriate measures be taken to repair and rehabilitate a healthy mother-daughter relationship as quickly as possible,” the judge said. “It is clear to me that (the daughter) may be harmed as much or more by the disruption of her relationship with her mother caused by these events, while not discounting in any way the harm caused by the offence itself.”

The mother received a 12-month conditional sentence to be served in the community.