Fired homeless foundation director jailed for luring boys
Preying upon vulnerable, drug-addicted, homeless teens for his own sexual gratification has landed fired homeless foundation director Robin Wortman a five-year prison term.
In agreeing with submissions from Crown prosecutors Donna Spaner and Sarah Goard-baker, Justice Blair Nixon also slapped Wortman with a lifetime ban on social media access to minors.
The ban, which defence lawyer Andre Ouellette opposed as being equivalent to an indeterminate sentence, also prohibits Wortman from attending areas where minors frequent — such as playgrounds — and bans him from taking supervisory positions over children.
Goard-baker argued the ban was not a form of punishment but something necessary to protect children from the offender.
Wortman, 65, pleaded guilty, mid-trial, last August to four charges related to luring teenage boys to his Beltline apartment for sex.
At the time he was a member of the board of directors of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, but was fired immediately upon being charged.
Nixon noted Wortman carefully cultivated his victims, texting them over the internet and supplying them with methamphetamine and marijuana when it was still illegal.
Among the charges he pleaded guilty to was trafficking in an illicit drug.
The Court of Queen’s Bench said while Wortman’s drug pushing wasn’t motivated by profit, he still equated it to a commercial operation.
“The fact that his sole motivation was not money is not mitigating,” Nixon said.
The judge said Wortman’s conduct amounted to “the deliberate sexual exploitation of vulnerable, drug-addicted young people.”
And he supplied drugs to the victims “to groom and entice young people to his home.”
Nixon said the exploitative behaviour of the offender seriously traumatized the victims.
Wortman admitted charges of internet luring for the purpose of sexual exploitation, possession and distribution of child pornography, and trafficking.
Among the 200 items of child pornography he had was a video of two youths he knew engaging in sexual conduct, which he shared with others.
Nixon said while Wortman’s apparent lack of remorse was not an aggravating factor warranting an increase in punishment, it was concerning in terms of his future threat to society. He said although a psychiatric assessment had him as a low to moderate candidate for recidivism, Wortman didn’t show insight into the effect of his crimes.
“Mr. Wortman continues to view himself as a benevolent friend to the young people he victimized,” the judge said.
“He engages in victim blaming, stating more than once that ‘everyone who came to my house was aware of what was happening there.’”