ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — He hasn’t yet been sentenced, but Christopher Barnes asked a provincial court judge to send him to jail Thursday anyway, giving him a head start on the mandatory time he has to serve for child luring.
Barnes, 55, was arrested in August 2017 as he used his employer’s truck and cellphone to meet with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl with the intention of paying her $150 for sexual acts.
The child he had arranged to meet was actually an RNC officer.
Barnes pleaded guilty to charges of child luring and communicating with a person for the purposes of obtaining sexual services for consideration, laid by police after an investigator posing as a 15-year-old girl posted a message on a local adult classified site. While a number of men responded to the message, they backed out of contact upon learning the “girl’s” age. Barnes did not, telling her he was OK with it.
“(He) asked the covert identity if he could be her sugar daddy, which is generally a term where an older individual provides financial support for a younger individual." — Prosecutor Jude Hall
Over the course of three months, Barnes communicated with the girl by email and in texts, writing sexually explicit messages, asking her for nude photos and sending her photos of his naked buttocks.
“(He) asked the covert identity if he could be her sugar daddy, which is generally a term where an older individual provides financial support for a younger individual,” prosecutor Jude Hall told the court.
About a month into the contact, Barnes sent a message saying, “What do guys pay you for an hour?”
The undercover officer replied with a list of rates for various sexual acts, including one for $150.
Later in the month, Barnes sent a photo of $150 cash, texting, “All this could be yours.”
Barnes arranged to meet the girl outside a St. John’s fast-food restaurant one morning in mid-August, and showed up in a company truck. An investigation of the cellphone number he was using indicated it belonged to the same company.
Barnes was arrested and a police search of the truck turned up a cellphone — which contained the text and email conversations with the undercover officer — as well as $150 cash in the centre console.
While investigators waited to testify at his trial, Barnes made a last-minute deal with the Crown and officially entered his guilty pleas before Judge David Orr in provincial court in St. John’s Thursday. The deal included the withdrawal of two of his original charges and amendments to the wording of another, in order to lower a mandatory sex offender registration period from life to 10 years.
Barnes’ lawyer, Rosellen Sullivan, indicated she would make an application to the court in an effort to lighten her client’s jail sentence as well. Sullivan alleged the RNC investigator breached Barnes’ charter rights when he briefly searched his cellphone at the time of his arrest.
“We might not need a hearing. We’re hoping the Crown will concede the charter breach,” Sullivan told Orr.
In the meantime, Barnes requested to begin his jail sentence right away, even though he hasn’t been given one yet. The judge agreed.
Barnes’ child luring conviction carries a minimum 180-day prison term, while his conviction for attempting to purchase sexual services can carry further jail time or a fine.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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