Pedophile says curtailing his use of internet violates his freedom

Article content

A convicted pedophile complains restrictions protecting children from his lurid sexual interest violate his right to liberty, despite his repeat convictions and admission of a drive “to fulfil my fantasy about having sex with a younger girl.”

The Federal Court rejected Kyle Crawley’s pleas, keeping in place restrictions curtailing the Ontario man from using the internet and going where children gather.

Article content

Crawley was convicted in 2018 of child luring and other charges and given a sentence of two and a half years for using social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, to contact female children for a sexual purpose.

When Crawley was arrested, he lived with his wife in a home near the Blue Mountain Ski Resort, west of Collingwood, Ont., and was already on probation restrictions for his previous child-sex convictions.

After his most recent conviction, the Crown sought a dangerous offender designation. Instead, the judge imposed a 10-year Long-Term Supervision Order (LTSO), a lifetime sex offender registration, and a ban on possessing weapons or firearms.

Prior to the end of his recent prison sentence, the Parole Board of Canada placed special restrictions under the LTSO.

He recently went to court asking for the restrictions to be changed. He wanted officials to remove requirements on where he lives and to change rules restricting being near children and use of the internet.

In Federal Court, he complained these rules were unreasonable violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing life, liberty, and security of the person.

Article content

Article content

Crawley’s track record of complying with his restrictions isn’t good.

In 2013, he had been convicted of child luring, sexual interference, and possession of child pornography. Probation orders were imposed after his trial, prohibiting him from communicating with children under the age of 16 and from possessing any device capable of accessing the internet.

Nonetheless, in 2016, parents of five female children — as young as 10 — called police after their children alerted them to sexual communications seemingly from an adult male, according to court filings. An investigation led police to suspect the messages were from Crawley.

He was under secret police surveillance in a public laundromat when an undercover officer watched him draw a reverse C pattern on a smartphone screen to unlock it and then start typing text messages on it. That swipe pattern was later used to unlock the phone after Crawley was arrested.

Article content

He later complained that the police access and search of his phone was a violation of his rights protecting him from unreasonable search and seizure. A judge rejected his complaint.

At his trial in 2018, court was shown his sexually explicit chats on Facebook with two 15-year-old girls, trying to entice them to meet him for sexual purposes, as well as evidence of contact with other girls.

He took the stand at his trial, saying he had no intention of ever having physical sexual contact with his victims, rather, as the trial judge phrased his defence in court records, his “prurient discourse” was to “provide auto-erotic gratification through fantasies about them.”

In Crawley’s own words, according to court reporting, he said: “I was just trying to fulfil my fantasy about having sex with a younger girl.”

Crawley also tried to bolster his defence by pointing to his previous convictions for child sex-related charges, saying he had “learned his lesson.”

The trial judge dismissed his defences, saying nothing “suggests that the sexual encounters he is proposing are imaginary. Indeed, those communications encourage (the victims) to engage in, or at least to consider, sexual contact with Mr. Crawley. His communications are aimed at the creation of circumstances in which such contact can occur.”

Article content

He was found guilty of four child luring offences. He was also convicted in 2018 for breaching a court order.

Prior to his prison release, the parole board noted Crawley “continues to demonstrate a propensity for sexual offences against children.” A parole appeal decision refusing his objections says he has shown “a pattern of sexually predatory behaviour toward vulnerable, young people” and he admitted he had “challenges in controlling sexual impulses.”

The board imposed special restrictions under his LTSO, including residency requirements. For the first year he was to live in a supervised facility with permission to stay only some nights with his wife in their home.

Federal Court judge Julie Blackhawk said Tuesday the court accepts that residency requirements for long-term offenders against children are not constitutional violations. The judge said it was “reasonable and necessary.”

Crawley complained the internet restriction hampered his ability to seek employment and that the online nature of society makes it hard for him to reintegrate.

Blackhawk dismissed that reasoning, saying some “deprivation of liberty is necessary for the protection of public safety.” In any event, the judge noted, by the time of the hearing he had already found a job.

Article content

Crawley also sought to change a restriction preventing him from being where children congregate, such as schools, parks, swimming pools and recreational centres. He said it left him in a “constant state of fear” that he may be in breach because “children are … everywhere.”

This too was dismissed by Blackhawk. The wording of the restriction is reasonable, she ruled.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Article content