Arrested for the first time in 2015 with condoms and lubricant as he was about to meet a teenager who was in fact an undercover agent, a young man was again convicted of luring in the same context.
As a young adult, Samuel Croteau was caught red-handed by Quebec City investigators in 2015 after a first denunciation.
The 21-year-old, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, contacted teenage girls on Facebook and started explicit conversations with them.
Informed of this disturbing situation, the police had instructed an undercover officer to contact the suspect with the fake Facebook account of a teenager, ultimately giving him an appointment in the parking lot of a restaurant.
Croteau was arrested in possession of condoms and lubricant and sentenced to 90 days in prison for his actions.
Recidivism
However, the young man did it again in the summer of 2020 by first contacting a 16-year-old girl.
The accused manifested his desire to have intimate relations with her by telling her that “his age does not bother him”, despite the teenager’s repeated refusals.
A complaint was therefore filed with the police, who used the same ploy as in 2015 to identify Croteau.
An undercover agent therefore used a fake account of a 13-year-old child to contact the man, who was then 26 years old.
The latter fell into the trap by mentioning that he wanted a “serious relationship” with the teenager, while indicating that he knew that it was not legal.
A meeting, again in the parking lot of a restaurant, was fixed and Samuel Croteau was then apprehended by the police.
On the internet unsupervised
In addition to a luring charge, the now 28-year-old man who is being held pleaded guilty to four counts of misdemeanor, including going on the internet without supervision.
His mother was supposed to supervise him, but it turns out that the offender had been using the internet unsupervised since his release from prison at the end of his first sentence.
Samuel Croteau will receive his sentence this fall.