A 31-year-old man was sentenced to one year in jail for sharing sexually explicit messages and photos with a 13-year-old girl who was actually an undercover cop.
Nolan Edward Liedke previously pleaded guilty to telecommunication to lure a child under 16 and was taken into custody after Tuesday's sentencing hearing.
Provincial court judge Shannon Keyes agreed with the defence and crown's joint submission that the mandatory minimum was the correct sentence for the crime, described as on the lower end of the scale.
In January 2015 a member of B.C.'s Integrated Child Exploitation Team set up a profile as a 13-year-old girl, using an age-regressed photo of the woman.
Soon the undercover officer was speaking to a user who went by "all in" on a teen chat site. Police later confirmed after Liedke was arrested that he'd set up the profile along with another account used to share information with the girl.
Liedke presented himself as a 22-year-old man from White Rock, using a false name, and initiated the conversation with the girl, whose user name made clear she was 13.
The chat quickly became sexually explicit, with Liedke asking about her body development, if she'd ever masturbated, had sex or seen a penis, said Crown lawyer Terry Lawrence as he summarized the interaction.
When the officer said she'd never seen a penis before, Liedke messaged: "You want to see mine?"
Liedke then sent three images of his penis and continued messaging in "great detail" about the 13-year-old giving him oral sex.
At one point the officer wrote "that sounds scary," but communication continued.
On another day, Liedke asked the officer posing as a girl if it would be weird if they "hooked up."
"I don't really see you as a 13-year-old," he wrote, later saying they would have to "keep it on the down low.
"I could get in some serious shit," he wrote.
"Really, you would," the officer wrote back.
"Yeah, since you're under 16," he wrote, which Keyes later noted in her decision made it clear Liedke knew what he was doing was wrong.
"It's abundantly clear from that exchange that he knew that the conversation he was engaging in and his suggestion that the 13 year old meet up with him would be completely contrary to law," Keyes said.
When the officer asked when they could meet, Liedke said he didn't know because of school. At the time Liedke, also a red seal chef, was in Prince George pursuing an environmental engineering degree, court heard.
"It sucks but it, dunno, it kinda seems like we have a connection so it'll happen I think," he wrote.
That's how the conversation ended and police tracked down his IP address, and placed Liedke under arrest. In the ensuing interview Liedke, who had no prior criminal record, admitted he'd chatted with 13-year-olds and sent naked images.
A seized computer revealed chat logs with 12 different users, showing a similar pattern of explicit conversation and images. The messages suggest he never met with the girls and showed no sign the girls returned his images with explicit ones of their own.
Though Liedke wasn't charged for any other communication with minors, Lawrence said it was "troubling" that he was speaking with multiple girls who appeared to be under 16.
As the details were read in court Liedke kept his eyes cast down and his sister, sitting behind him, wiped her closed eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.
When given the chance to speak, Liedke thanked the court and said the "silver lining in this bad situation" was when he stopped drinking, his health improved because it reduced the symptoms associated with his ulcerative colitis.
"I just want to get this behind me," he said.
A psychological assessment put Liedke in the low to moderate range for risk to re-offend and said both mental health and addiction played a role in his offence.
Though Liedke denied attraction to girls of that age, the doctor said he showed some "sexual deviance."
Defence lawyer Keith Jones said Liedke had been depressed at the time and was "extremely cooperative" with police from the beginning, acknowledged responsibility, took counselling and stopped drinking.
"I've seen a lot of people in this situation... but I don't think I've ever seen anybody who's embraced the comments of the doctors with such enthusiasm," said Jones, who requested Liedke serve his sentence in Ford Mountain Correctional Centre in Chilliwack.
"He's determined this will be his last offence as well as his first offence."
At Tuesday's sentencing hearing the crown requested a stay on two other related charges.
Liedke was sentenced to two years probation, where he can't drink alcohol or be in the presence of anyone under 16 without another adult who knows of his conviction or access the internet unless for work or school.
He'll also be on the sex offender registry for 20 years and was ordered to give a DNA sample.
Liedke has 18 months to pay a $200 victim fine surcharge.
