Internet luring sentence sparks outrage

Chief Fantino appalled, urges citizens to demand justice

Man who targeted 11-year-old being held for deportation


HAROLD LEVY
STAFF REPORTER

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 to time served yesterday after spending 21 months in pretrial custody.

But Sergio Arana Martinez was not freed from custody yesterday because he faces deportation to Nicaragua, where he is wanted for deserting that country's army. There is no indication how long he will be held.

Arana Martinez had been convicted of using a computer to facilitate sexual interference with a person under the age 14, an offence added to the Criminal Code on July 23, 2002, abduction of a person under age 16 and sexual interference.

This was the first prosecution under the new law.

Superior Court Justice 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 as "the personification of the evil" which Canada's new law aimed at Internet sexual predators was intended to stop.

Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino, speaking to the media later at police headquarters, said the sentence should be appealed.

Fantino said he was disappointed with the sentence but wasn't prepared to blame just the judge.

"This guy (Arana Martinez) should not have been here," he said. "The system failed this young girl and the system failed all of us. He should not have had the opportunity to victimize an 11-year-old girl."

Fantino said the public should be writing to politicians demanding justice.

"This is a complete breakdown of the system," he said.

The prosecutor, Horgan, argued that a tough sentence was warranted because of the increasing risk that vulnerable children will be preyed on by sexual predators in an era when computers are so widely available.

Arana Martinez, 35, pleaded not guilty but did not contest evidence that he had used his home computer to enter a Microsoft Network teen chat room in September, 2002, and started messaging the girl, telling her his name was Tony Montana and he was 19. Although 10 at the time, she told him she was 13.

He developed a relationship that evolved from chat rooms, to emails, to telephone conversations, to a half-hour meeting at a public school and finally, on Oct. 13, 2002, to a drive that ended at his Pape Ave. apartment

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 the Islington subway station.

He was arrested two days later.

In a victim impact statement filed with the court, the girl's mother described the range of emotions she felt the night her daughter went missing, "starting with being worried, scared, fearful, and most of all a feeling of total helplessness."

"I started questioning my parenting abilities and was feeling somewhat responsible as I wasn't able to protect her from this crime," she wrote. " I was deeply saddened and angry at the accused for taking away my little girl's innocence."

The girl said in her victim impact statement that she missed "a lot of days of school" after the abduction because she was scared about what people might say, or what they might ask.

"Sort of felt like I'm not myself any more.... It's like something has been taken away from me and I can't get it back," she wrote. "Don't care for myself as much any more."

The victim and her mother cannot be named because of a publication ban.

Arana Martinez was sentenced to one year for Internet luring, one year concurrent for abducting a minor and two years consecutive for sexual interference, less 21 months pre-trial custody for which he received a two-for-one credit because of the difficulties involved in being held in a detention centre pending trial.

With files from Cal Millar

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