SELECTED CASE LAW
BRITISH COLUMBIA:
In 2011 BCSC 1833, a high school teacher, Mr. C, was charged with sexual exploitation and luring a child in relation to his 17-year-old student, Ms. M. Over a 36-hour period, the two parties exchanged text messages via Ms. M’s personal cellphone and a cellphone registered to Mr. C’s wife, who was also a teacher of Ms. M at the same school. The exchange began as a channel for Ms. M to ask questions related to her upcoming history exam but became sexually explicit at the initiation of Mr. C and continued as such over a lengthy exchange.
The judge analyzed whether the text messages alone could constitute sexual exploitation and determined they could as they satisfied all the elements of the offence. He added that “Ms. M.’s status as a victim is not reduced to any extent by her degree of participation in the communications, nor does that participation detract from his responsibility for what occurred.”[1]
In determining the sentence, the judges emphasized this was on the low range of seriousness for this offence but that the text messages also required deliberate and sustained efforts to conceive, type, and send, which must be contrasted to the greater spontaneity of spoken conversation.
Mr. C was sentenced to 60 days in prison. He appealed his conviction and it was dismissed.
See also: 2013 BCCA 535 (Appeal); 2012 BCSC 918 (Sentencing).
[1] 2012 BCSC 918 at para 32.
Criminal Offence(s): Sexual Exploitation