Hockey volunteer claims texts to teen meant as joke

Message subjects included money for sex acts, anal sex

A fate of a hockey volunteer charged with several child pornography offences after he sent a 14-year-old boy sex-related text messages is now in the hands of a local judge.

Richard McSween, a volunteer with a junior hockey league in Niagara Falls, maintains he was only joking when he engaged in a text conversation with the teen, asking him to get his friend, also 14, to send him a photograph of his penis.

“This is a joke,” defence lawyer John Lefurgey told Judge Tory Colvin on Thursday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

“A joke is not criminal, therefore Mr. McSween should be acquitted.”

McSween, who admitted sending the texts — they included several texts mentioning the exchange of money for a sexual act and an animated image of two stick figures having anal sex — has pleaded not guilty to several charges including making and distributing child pornography.

At trial, several teenage boys described the middle-aged defendant as “acting like a goofy teenage kid who happens to have a car” and not as mature as most adults.

McSween testified he enjoys making outrageous comments to “get a laugh.”

“The evidence supports the argument that this was a joke,” Lefurgey said, adding creating and sending the texts did not meet the definition of child pornography under the Criminal Code.

While the language may be considered “vulgar and ill-informed,” he added, the context of the messages was not criminal in nature.

Assistant Crown attorney Todd Morris questioned why a 47-yearold man would make jokes about having sex with young boys.

He argued the defendant wasn’t joking as he claimed, rather he was “grooming” the teens for potential sexual activity.

Morris also referred to a text conversation where McSween suggested one teen should allow him to “play with his (penis)” because he had bought him gifts, including a phone, and rented ice time for him.

“The words matter … the content matters,” he said.

The judge will deliver his judgment Jan. 14.