Girl, 15, testifies in luring and child-porn trial

A 15-year-old girl testified in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench Monday that a man sent her several photos of his genitals and sexual texts in 2023.

Her testimony came during a trial for a man, 41, charged with two child-luring offences, along with distributing sexually explicit material to a person under 16, possessing child pornography, making child pornography and inviting a person under 16 to sexually touch him.

The Sun cannot name the complainant due to a publication ban on information that could identify her. To ensure that the girl is not identified and that the ban is not breached, the Sun has chosen not to name the accused.

The girl testified that she met the accused through her mother and babysat his children a couple of times. She said she would also bring cigarettes to him from her mother and vice versa.

She said she was alone with the accused on a few occasions, and they communicated with each other through Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and the texting app that is automatically installed on smartphones.

While she didn’t have her own phone, she would use her mother’s and sign into her Facebook account, she testified.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup asked what happened during those conversations.

“Well, he would be very inappropriate … and sometimes I would respond the same way back,” she said.

When questioned further, she said he sent her pictures of his penis “more than a couple times” and that she knew it was him because his face was in the photos.

“He was telling me how he wanted to have sex with me,” she testified.

She said she sent him photos of her in her bra but never showed anything below the waist.

When Lonstrup asked if it was her idea or his idea for her to send him those photos, she said, “It was his idea,” and that he would ask her for “any type of nude.”

The girl said she didn’t save any of the photos of his penis.

“Was there any time he touched you or you touched him?” Lonstrup asked.

She said one time, when they were alone in his truck, he tried to kiss her and touch her thighs. She said she told him to stop before getting out of the vehicle and going home.

Lonstrup presented two packages that contained screenshots of messages shared between what the girl said were her and the accused’s Facebook accounts over Facebook Messenger.

He read the messages aloud. In them, the two parties discussed how they missed each other and exchanged photos. Lonstrup read messages from what appeared to be the accused’s Facebook account, which described the sexual acts he wanted to do with her in detail.

One of the messages read, “So gorgeous. F—’s sake. Did you know you’re getting married on your 18th birthday?”

“He knew you weren’t 18 yet?” Lonstrup asked. The girl said he did.

On May 10, 2023, the girl gave a statement to police after they showed up at her door and said they needed to speak with her. She said she had never reported anything to the police and that she felt “scared” when they showed up to talk to her.

Defence lawyer Bob Harrison asked how many times the girl babysat for the accused, when, where and what she would do with the children.

She said she babysat for him two times at his mother’s house, where he lived. She testified that she didn’t know exactly when she babysat, but when she was there, they would mostly play video games.

“I’m going to suggest that you told your mother you were babysitting at (the accused’s) or something so that you could go party with your friends, see your friends,” Harrison said. The girl denied his suggestion.

Harrison also pointed out discrepancies between the girl’s statement to police and her testimony. When asked why she gave different details, she said it was because she didn’t want to talk to police at that time.

He asked why she didn’t originally tell police that the accused had tried to kiss her and touch her thighs, despite them asking if he ever touched her.

“I didn’t want anyone to get in trouble,” she responded, specifying that she was referring to the accused.

“The accused never sent you any pictures at all. You’re making that up,” Harrison said. She denied making it up.

He also suggested that she never sent him photos of her in her bra and that she was “making that up as well,” which she denied.

He asked her if the accused or her family ever told her that the accused’s phone had been stolen, which she also denied.

The girl’s brother, 21, also took the stand.

He testified that he went to the police on May 6, 2023, after he saw “sexual messages” between his sister and the accused.

He said that the accused started off as a friend of his mother’s, but then the accused and his sister started communicating more. He said she would leave the house later at night and was taking the cellphone more often to message him.

When Harrison asked how he knew that she was using the phone to message the accused or that she was meeting up with him, he said he saw her on the phone with him and that she would mention that she had seen him, but that he didn’t think much of it.

Harrison asked if he pressured her to go to the police. He said he didn’t.

The trial continues.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com