A local man currently serving time for similar offences involving three Alberta girls was sentenced in Prince George on Wednesday to two years in jail after pleading guilty to two charges related to an attempt to lure a minor for a sexual purpose.
John Gerrald Mills, 28, will serve the term concurrently with one he is serving in Alberta where, in July 2013, he was sentenced to a further four years and three-and-a-half months after pleading guilty to nine counts involving three Alberta girls he targeted via the internet from Prince George.
The latest sentencing for Mills was based on a joint submission from Crown and defence counsels. In August, Mills pleaded guilty to one count each of invitation to sexual touching and communicating to lure, both related to a child under 14 years old.
Other than to say the offences occurred between October 2005 and July 2006 and involved Mills using a computer while in this city to lure a child, no further detail was provided when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elliott Myers issued his decision at the Prince George courthouse.
According to an Alberta provincial court decision on sentencing for Mills on the matters involving the girls in that province, between October 2005 and September 2010, he used a computer to seek out sex with girls between the ages of 11 and 15 years.
Two of the Alberta girls he targeted were 14 years old and one was 13 years old. In one of those cases, he travelled to Calgary more than a dozen times over two years to have sex with a girl who was seven years younger than himself.
Mills "attracted his flies more with honey than with vinegar," sentencing judge Sean Dunnigan said, and added he "engendered trust and compliance through emotional manipulation, persistent grooming and his pretend fulfillment of their relationship expectations."
Mills blamed his actions in part on the low self-esteem and lack of confidence he had as a teen due to severe acne, making him reclusive in high school. For Dunnigan, that was no excuse.
"Having acne, being self-conscious and struggling to cope with self-esteem are virtually full-time occupations for an adolescent," Dunnigan said.
"They do not, however, explain or excuse predilections towards serious sexual predation upon minors."
In all, Dunnigan sentenced Mills to seven year less credit of two years, eight and a half months, based on two days for each of the 492 days he had been in custody prior to sentencing.
Before sentencing on Wednesday, Mills apologized both to the victim and her family and to his own family, saying he should have known better. Mills also said he has made progress on leading a better and healthier lifestyle while serving time.
