Senior who preyed on Filipina girls, mother online gets day parole
A Vernon senior who was jailed for using the internet to prey on vulnerable teenage girls and their mothers in the Philippines to satisfy his “deviant sexual urges” has been granted day parole.
Wayne Douglas Brown, 71, was arrested in 2016 and is serving just over 4½ years for luring a child under 18, luring a child under 16, possession of child pornography and arranging a sex offence against a child under 16, involving five children.
A two-person federal parole board denied Brown full parole despite a psychological risk assessment that determined he was at a below average risk of another sexual offence compared to other sex offenders, the parole document said.
The board noted earlier court documents showed Brown said “you felt what you were doing was not fully real as it was online. You reportedly minimized the seriousness of your offending.”
The location of the halfway house that Brown will have to sleep at for six months was redacted from the report, as is the name of the city where he intends to settle when he completes his sentence. That date is unknown.
The offences occurred between mid-2012 and mid2016, during which time he sent money to his victims.
The ruling noted “many of the victims were poor and needed money for food, medicine or schooling” and the sentencing judge said “common sense would conclude the explicit chats you had with the young victims would result in a profound impact.”
The judge who sentenced Brown said he “used money to coerce the victims to perform sexual acts,” which he watched online, and described his “attitude as cavalier and callous.”
The judge noted the highly aggravating features of one offence in which Brown “preyed on the financial desperation of the victim’s mother.”
Between 2012 and 2015, Brown “counselled a mother to commit offence against her daughter and between them” and the “victim requested money for food and medicine in exchange for explicit images” and online sexual acts.
In 2016, he had “sexually explicit” online chats with a 16-year-old victim in the Philippines, exchange nude photos with her and “you expressed a desire to have sex with her when you travelled to the Philippines.”
The board noted it needed to determine if Brown by reoffending would “present undue risk to society before the expiration of (his sentence)” and if his “release will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating (his) reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen.”
It noted Brown’s lack of a previous sexual offence record, his expression of remorse, good character and work history, positive behaviour in prison, participation in Bible study, absence of drug or alcohol issues, willingness to attend treatment and support of friends in the community.