A 39-year-old Saltcoats man has been sentenced to time-served on a charge of invitation to sexual touching involving a 14-year-old girl.
Nathan Penner pleaded guilty to a total of four charges including invitation to sexual touching, obstructing justice and two breaches of an undertaking.
Penner was originally charged with sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in August 2013. He was released at that time on conditions, which included not having contact with the victim and not communicating with any person under the age of 16 unless in the company of another adult approved by probation services. His trial was scheduled for April 8, 2014.
He was back in court in February, 2014, however, on three new charges and seven breaches of conditions. At his sentencing hearing April 8 of this year, prosecutor Darryl Bode explained that while awaiting trial, Penner had engaged in an elaborate social media scheme in an attempt to convince his victim to drop the charges. By setting up a false Facebook account and posing as a friend of a friend, the accused tried to bribe the girl. Under that guise, Penner also sent her notes and flowers, which she turned over to police.
The RCMP also took over the girl’s Facebook account and communicated with Penner to gather evidence.
At a bail hearing February 21, he was remanded in custody and spent 60 days in jail before being released again on electronic monitoring.
In a joint submission at the sentencing hearing two weeks ago to Judge Ross Green, Bode explained the original offence was a telephone conversation during which Penner, a mechanic, told the victim he didn’t wear anything under his coveralls and suggested “it would be awesome” if she came up behind him, put her hands in his pockets and reached around. Bode acknowledged the incident was at the lower end of the spectrum of sexual offences and, he side given the defendant had no prior criminal record and had pleaded guilty saving the court’s time and the victim from testifying, the mandatory minimum sentence of 90 days was appropriate. The prosecutor also cited the fact there had been no trouble during the year Penner was on electronic monitoring as a mitigating circumstance.
The judge agreed giving Penner 1.5 times credit for time-served on the invitation to sexual touching count. Green suspended sentence on the other three charges imposing the mandatory victim surcharge of $100 on each of the charges.
The judge also made the mandatory orders of providing a DNA sample and registering with the Sex Offender Registry for 10 years.
