Man gets jail in child luring case involving U.S. youth

A local man will be spending his weekends in jail for a number of months after he was convicted Monday of luring a child under the age of 16 on Facebook.

Pierre Vaillancourt, 44, was sentenced to a 90-day intermittent sentence after he pleaded guilty to the charge in a Sault Ste. Marie courtroom.

The offence, which involved a 15-year-old American youth, occurred between Feb. 1 and June 14, 2014.

A publication ban prohibits reporting any information that may identify the victim.

Ontario Court Justice John Kukurin heard Vaillancourt initiated a friendship with the boy on Facebook and "the bulk of the chats were sexual in nature."

Assistant Crown attorney David Kirk described most of the chats as "flirting with double entendres."

The young person shared provocative photos with the accused and there was more explicit chats and role playing involving the two, he said.

"There were pages and pages of chat logs which meet the definition of luring," he said.

Kirk said the teen's mother discovered the chats and notified police in her jurisdiction.

The offence carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 90 days behind bars.

The Crown and defence lawyer Eric McCooeye proposed that the sentence be served on weekends so that Vaillancourt can maintain his employment.

His client, who "has a good job," has accepted responsibility for his actions, McCooeye said.

"I feel badly this happened," Vaillancourt told the judge, apologizing for taking up everybody's time.

Kukurin responded that this a serious offence under the Criminal Code of Canada, especially because it involves a young person who doesn't have the same life experience as an adult.

He agreed to the intermittent sentence which will be served weekends from Saturday night until Monday morning.

As well, Kukurin gave Vaillancourt credit for three days of pre-sentence custody, leaving him with 87 days to serve.

Once he does his time, Vaillancourt will be on probation for 15 months with numerous conditions that include no communication with the victim.

He also can't be around males under the age of the 16 unless he's in the company of a person approved in writing by his probation officer.

Vaillancourt must also provide a DNA sample for the national database and must register as a sex offender for 10 years.