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Saskatoon man sentenced for luring child over Craigslist

Apr 20, 2015 | 4:12 PM

A Saskatoon man who says he was trying to “educate” a 14-year-old girl he met through a Craigslist ad has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to child luring.

“She sounded curious and I thought it would be safer if it was with me,” Gregory Howard Prescott told a police officer after he was arrested at the 8th Street Dairy Queen on April 2. That’s where police, who had been posing as the teen girl online, arranged to meet Prescott. Court heard the 66-year-old planned on bringing the girl back to his house for sex acts; he told police he thought it would be good for her because he was an older, gentle man who didn’t drink alcohol or take drugs.

It all started when Prescott posted a series of Craigslist ads in late March, looking for a “curious lolita”. The term means “underage” in child pornography rings, and it’s what alerted police to the ad according to Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli.

The undercover officer responded to the ad as a 14-year-old girl. Acknowledging that she was young, Prescott still sent her sexual messages calling her “baby girl”, asking for her breast size and describing himself as “very touchy-feely”.
 
The messages eventually got so graphic that even Prescott’s lawyer, Lisa Watson, said “to be frank, the content is disgusting.”

But Watson said her client wasn’t specifically seeking an underage girl when he posted the ad. He believed the term “lolita” referred to younger, inexperienced women who could be in their 20s or 30s but still virgins.

Even if that were the case, the judge said Prescott still intended on meeting a girl who he believed was underage.

“I believe the judge said it very well that it doesn’t matter that it was an undercover officer. It was the intention of the accused person, who believed he was dealing with a 14-year-old girl, and that’s what matters in this situation,” Morelli said outside court.

The Crown successfully argued for the 18-month jail term, while the defence asked for a lesser sentence of 15 months. Watson said Prescott has no criminal record and was not found to be in possession of any child pornography.

“He just doesn’t know what he was thinking,” Watson said. Court heard Prescott has been married for 45 years, has three adult children and three grandchildren.

He worked at Cabela’s as a firearm inspector and was also the store’s Santa Claus, Morelli confirmed. Although Prescott’s wife was shocked about what happened, Watson said there were never any concerns or complaints about Prescott being alone with children.

“No one that is close to him believes he poses any sort of threat to any of the children in his life,” she said. “He still has family support and his hope is once he serves his time he will be able to continue on a life with his wife and his children and grandchildren.”

Prescott received a 28-day remand credit and will be on probation for three years after he is released from jail. One of his conditions is that he must be supervised during visits with his grandchildren.

He accepts his sentence and knows he acted inappropriately, Watson told the court, but the judge said it goes much further than that.

“It was predatory, disgusting — inappropriate doesn’t begin to describe it in my view,” the judge said, turning to look at Prescott. “If this happens again, it’s going to end much worse for you.”

panews@jpbg.ca

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