Police breached man’s rights while arresting him for child luring, court hears
Police breached a man’s rights when they arrested him for child luring, the Crown conceded Friday in provincial court in St. John’s.
That means the lawyer for Christopher Barnes can argue for a lighter sentence when the case is next called before a judge — and by that time, Barnes will have a portion of it completed.
Barnes, 55, has been in jail — by request — for the past month. Once he entered guilty pleas to charges of child luring and communicating with a child for the purpose of obtaining services for consideration, Barnes asked Judge David Orr to order him into custody to get a head start on the mandatory jail term.
Barnes was arrested in August 2017 as he used his employer’s truck and cellphone to meet with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl with the intention of paying her $150 for sexual acts.
The child he had arranged to meet was actually an RNC investigator.
An officer posing as a 15-year-old girl posted a message on a local adult classified site. While a number of men responded to the message, they backed out of contact upon learning the “girl’s” age. Barnes did not, telling her he was OK with it.
Over the course of three months, Barnes communicated with the girl by email and in texts, writing sexually explicit messages, asking her for nude photos and sending her photos of his naked buttocks.
“(He) asked the covert identity if he could be her sugar daddy, which is generally a term where an older individual provides financial support for a younger individual,” prosecutor Jude Hall told the court.
About a month into the contact, Barnes sent a message saying, “What do guys pay you for an hour?”
The undercover officer replied with a list of rates for various sexual acts, including one for $150.
Later in the month, Barnes sent a photo of $150 cash, texting, “All this could be yours.”
Barnes arranged to meet the girl outside a St. John’s fast-food restaurant one morning in mid-august, and showed up in a company truck. An investigation of the cellphone number he was using indicated it belonged to the same company.
Barnes was arrested and a police search of the truck turned up a cellphone — which contained the text and email conversations with the undercover officer — as well as $150 cash in the centre console.
It’s during Barnes’ arrest that his rights were breached, as the arresting officer opened applications on Barnes’ phone to briefly view his chat logs.
Barnes’ child luring conviction carries a minimum 180-day prison term, while his conviction for attempting to purchase sexual services can carry further jail time or a fine. He’s also facing registration as a sex offender for at least 10 years.