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November 26, 2004
Internet luring sentence sparks outrage
Fort Frances Times Online -- Canada
A man who used the Internet to lure an 11-year-old girl to his basement, where he kept her overnight while he tried to engage her in sex acts, was sentenced yesterday to time served after spending 21 months in pre-trial custody.
The sentence has triggered cries of outrage from police and child protection groups.
But Sergio Arana Martinez was not freed from custody because he faces deportation to Nicaragua, where he is wanted for deserting that country’s army.
An outraged Toronto police chief says the system has failed.
“Someone who’s here illegally victimizes an innocent, vulnerable child and the system gives him a kiss,” said Julian Fantino. “What’s wrong with this picture?
“The system failed this young girl. It failed all of us.”
Superior Court Judge Bruce Hawkins ruled that while the circumstances were aggravated by the victim’s “tender age,” Arana Martinez had not succeeded in carrying out any violent sexual acts.
Hawkins rejected prosecutor Sean Horgan’s request for a 10- to 12-year penitentiary term for Arana Martinez.
He was convicted of using a computer to facilitate sexual interference with a person under the age 14—an offence added to the Criminal Code in 2002.
This was the first prosecution under the new law.
“He’s the manifestation of evil that this legislation proposed to stop,” said Horgan. “I’ll be recommending we appeal this sentence.”
Martinez used his home computer to enter a teen chat room in September, 2002 and started messaging the girl—using an alias and lying that he was 19.
The girl also lied, saying she was 13 when she was 10 at the time.
Fifteen hours later, after giving the girl alcohol, taking her to his bedroom and unsuccessfully attempting intercourse and several other sexual acts, Arana Martinez dropped the girl off at a subway station.
He was arrested two days later.
The victim’s mother, who wept outside the courtroom, said “no sentence is good enough.”
“You should be setting a higher standard of sentence for child Internet predators to deter them, not this lenient one, especially since computers are everywhere in our society.
“No one is safe from Internet sex predators.”
Roz Prober, spokeswoman for Beyond Borders, a child advocacy group combating child sexual exploitation, said, “This is a total failure by the courts of protecting child victims by imposing a hyper-lenient sentence.
“This empowers the perpetrator—he has pulled a fast one over the justice system by getting three years credit for 21 months in custody.”
Martinez also has racked up three drunk driving convictions.
Posted by Nealus at November 26, 2004 02:13 PM
