Paradise child lurer gets a year in jail
But judge expresses concerns about RNC’s investigative techniques
The police may have blundered in its investigation, but not enough to prevent a child lurer from going to jail.
Sean Mills of Paradise was sentenced Friday in provincial court in St. John’s to a one-year prison term, with one year’s probation.
The sentence was slightly lighter than Judge David Orr felt Mills deserved. He said an appropriate sentence would have been 14 months.
However, he reduced it by two months, since he agreed that Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) investigators violated Mills’ Charter rights by failing to get judicial authorization to intercept their communication with him.
“The techniques employed in this case … raises valid concerns about privacy and confidentiality that impact not only the accused, but others who were drawn into this investigation, and raises the issue of its impact on the administration of justice,” Orr said.
Mills was found guilty of one count of child luring for a sexual purpose using a computer, following a lengthy trial in December 2014. He was found not guilty on three other counts.
The children were actually undercover RNC officers who were posing as girls on Facebook and Hotmail.
The officers, from the RNC’s child exploitation unit, began the investigation in March 2012. Mills’ offence was said to have occurred between March 20, 2012 and May 22, 2012.
An undercover RNC officer had posted a fake Facebook profile of a 14-year-old girl just three weeks before Mills made contact.
“Good Lord! For having just one picture on Facebook, you sure picked a good one. Beautiful!” the message said, according to RNC Sgt. Greg Hobbs.
Mills also sent a sexually explicit photo and asked the “girl” to send him one back. He also asked that she meet him in Bowring Park.
His lawyer, Rosellen Sullivan, tried to get the case thrown out because of the Charter breach. She called the police tactics “entrapment.” She said Hobbs sent a friend request to Mills, while one of the other officers, Const. Terry Follett, made initial contact with Mills by messaging him.
She asked for a judicial stay of proceedings, which would have meant proceedings be halted against Mills and the conviction rescinded. Another option, she said, would be a conditional sentence.
But Crown prosecutor Kathleen O’Reilly argued there’s no merit to that argument and suggested an 18-month jail term.
The judge agreed police targeted Mills without any reason to believe he would commit an offence. However, he noted it was Mills who made the chats sexual.
“(There was) no evidence that the police went beyond providing an opportunity,” Orr said. “I cannot find as a result, that the police conduct amounted to entrapment.”
However, he said there were concerns about how officers conducted the investigation.
He said since there was no police policy manual setting out any limitations for the technique Hobbs used, “Const. Hobbs was effectively using (his own) discretion as to what he did with any information that he gathered.”
For example, he said since Hobbs friended other people in setting up his fictitious Facebook page, there was no evidence that Hobbs put any safeguards in place to prevent Mills from availing of their information as well.
“Const. Hobbs did not have the informed consent of the people he added to his Facebook profile to add them,” the judge said.
Orr said the appropriate remedy is the reduced sentence, since a conditional sentence usually goes to offenders who plead guilty.
“In this case, Mr. Mills has not fully accepted responsibility for his actions,” Orr said. “The offence was deliberate and planned and was committed over a lengthy period of time.”
As part of the sentence, Mills will have his name listed on the Canadian Sex Offender Registry.
The 34-year-old — who had not been in custody, having been released shortly after his arrest — was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs by sheriff ’s officers.
“In this case, Mr. Mills has not fully accepted responsibility for his actions. The offence was deliberate and planned and was committed over a lengthy period of time.”
Judge David Orr