Offender used Snapchat to target minors
Firas Alobaid, 22, of Fredericton, admits to four sex crimes involving four victims; he tried to blackmail one, offered cash and vapes to others in exchange for sexual favours
Warning: This report includes graphic details of sexual crimes against minors.
He managed to convince a 13-year-old girl to send him explicit photos of herself, only to send them to her father in an effort to blackmail her into sending him more.
He promised three other teenage girls vapes, cash and alcohol in exchange for sex, and when one of them resisted, he tried to force his penis inside her.
And when his crimes first came to the attention of the RCMP, he left his home in Fredericton and drove through the night to the Toronto area, claiming he was just moving.
These were among the actions of Firas Alobaid, who admitted Friday to committing sex-related offences against four underage girls from late 2021 into the summer of 2022.
Alobaid. 22, of Needham Street in Fredericton, appeared in the Court of King’s Bench at the Burton Courthouse on Friday afternoon to answer to 24 criminal charges, most of which related to sex-related crimes against minors.
He’d previously elected to be tried before a judge and jury on 19 of the charges, but defence lawyer Alex Pate filed a re-election with the court Friday, opting for trial by King’s Bench judge alone. Crown prosecutors Shara Munn and Rachel Anstey consented to the change.
Alobaid then pleaded guilty to four charges:
communicating online with Victim No. 1 at Charters Settlement for the purpose of facilitating the offence of touching that minor for a sexual purpose between Dec. 4 and 26, 2021;
touching Victim No. 2 for a sexual purpose with his hands and penis knowing she was under the age of consent between Jan. 1 and June 11, 2022; at Oromocto;
touching Victim No. 3 for a sexual purpose with his penis knowing she was under the age of consent on June 10, 2022; at Oromocto;
and making child pornography depicting Victims No. 3 and 4 on June 10, 2022, at Oromocto.
The offender was 20 years old at the time of his crimes, said Munn.
An agreed statement of facts was filed with the court, and Alobaid had signed it and acknowledged they were accurate, reflecting his offences.
As such, the judge found him guilty of the four agreed-upon counts.
Shaming victim with compromising images
Munn read the statement of facts onto the record Friday afternoon, starting with the online luring offence from December 2021.
The RCMP investigation into that incident revealed Alobaid contacted a 13-year-old girl from Charters Settlement over Snapchat on Dec. 4, 2021. He didn’t know the girl but sent her a dark selfie from inside his car, court heard.
The girl later "told her mom that the individual was constantly asking for naked pictures and videos, and had been blackmailing her by saying, 'I know your address,' and 'I knew where you are going.’”
He used the same tactics, court heard, in an effort to pressure her to sneak out of the house to meet him.
"The individual asked her to send him pictures 'until he cums' or meet with him on the 'next day to give him a blowjob,'" Munn said.
Because of those tactics, she said, the girl sent Alobaid six or seven videos of her naked, each 10 to 15 seconds in length, as well as eight or nine nude photos.
It was on Dec. 26, 2021, the girl’s mother received a Facebook friend request from an account with the child’s first name, with the last name of “Brothel.” The mother didn’t accept the request, Munn said, but the same request was sent to the girl’s father from the Brothel account.
The mysterious account sent the father sexual photos and videos of the girl, the prosecutor said, and that’s when the parents learned of the unknown predator who’d been blackmailing their daughter.
The mother called the RCMP the following day to report the violations, court heard.
She later followed up with the Mounties to inform them the Facebook account was still active, Munn said, and they’d found other social-media accounts, such as on Instagram and Snapchat, associated with the same user.
But at that point in the investigation, court heard, Alobaid still hadn’t been identified as the person responsible.
The offender was arrested June 12, 2022, on other charges, Munn said, and the RCMP issued a news release about that separate investigation.
The mother of the Charters Settlement girl contacted the RCMP again, noting that incessant friend requests from suspect profiles stopped after the arrest.
Trading sexual favours for vapes
Alobaid was identified as a suspect in a later investigation.
It was on June 12, 2022, that the RCMP got a call from an Oromocto girl who reported that she and her friend had been sexually assaulted by a man who'd left them stranded in a cemetery in Prince William, near Fredericton, Munn said.
Those two girls, identified earlier in this story as Victims No. 3 and 4, were taken to the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital to be examined.
The girls reported they and another friend (Victim No. 2), all aged between 15 and 16, all later reported they’d had contact with an unknown male of Middle Eastern heritage earlier that year through Snapchat.
The girls reported they had sexual contact with the man - later identified as Alobaid - on multiple occasions beginning in January 2022, court heard, and only one was of the age of consent at the time.
The girls reported that the first incident with Alobaid happened several weeks before the call to the RCMP, Munn said.
The offender arranged to pick up Victims No. 2 and 4 in his car in Oromocto, she said, and he drove them to a secluded spot in Burton.
"In her statement, [Victim No. 4] states that the accused pulled down his pants and asked [Victim No. 2] to give him oral sex. [Victim No. 2] denied the request but eventually masturbated him using her hands," the prosecutor said.
The next encounter, court heard, was on June 10, 2022, involving Victims No. 3 and 4, and video evidence of it was found on Alobaid's cellphone, as he recorded it.
Both victims reported that Alobaid arranged over Snapchat again to pick them up in his car, Munn said, and he was to provide them with vapes in exchange for having sex with Victim No. 3.
"Throughout the two videos, [Victim No. 3] removed her clothing, engaged in oral sex with the accused at his request, and was sexually assaulted by the accused who had penetrative sex with her," the prosecutor said.
"The accused requests repeatedly for [No. 4] to perform oral sex on him and for him to partially insert his penis, until [No. 4] acquiesces."
Given the age of the victims, Alobaid’s decision to record the encounter with the girls amounted to making child pornography.
Court heard the third incident occurred June 12, 2022, involving Victims No. 2 and 4. Again, he picked them up and drove them to a secluded trail in Fredericton, where they parked.
He begged No. 4 for oral sex repeatedly until she eventually gave in, Munn said, noting the girl reported she believed he had weapons in the car and was scared of him. Alobaid also touched that girl's vagina and breasts.
"The accused then asked [No. 2] to have sex with him which she declined," the prosecutor said.
"The accused continued to pressure [No. 2] to have sex with him, eventually forcing himself on her by physically getting on top of her and trying to force his penis into her vagina."
The girl kept saying 'no,' Munn said, but Alobaid forced her legs open and tried to penetrate her.
"The accused continued to assault [No. 2] until he ejaculated into his hand," the prosecutor said. "He used baby wipes from the car to clean up afterwards."
The two girls wanted to go home to Oromocto, court heard, but Alobaid took them to the Prince William Cemetery instead.
He forced them from the car and left them there, driving away, Munn said, and that's when Victim No. 2 called 911.
Excerpts from his Snapchat conversations with the girls were also filed with the court, but sealed because the victims could possibly be identified by their usernames.
The theme in the online conversations was consistent, as the offender offered vapes, alcohol and cash in exchange for sexual favours.
Sudden decision to leave province
When they called the police June 21, 2022, the girls were able to provide a partial licence plate and vehicle description, the prosecutor said, and the RCMP was able to match it with a car belonging to Alobaid’s father.
Officers went to the Needham Street address associated with the car, Munn said, and the offender’s father said his son was driving the car and was out.
Provided with a number for Alobaid, police called him and said they needed to talk to him, she said, and the offender said he’d be at his home in short order.
“However, he did not show up,” the prosecutor said.
As officers secured a tracking warrant for his phone, Munn said, they made contact with Alobaid again, and he told them he’d decided to move to the Toronto area to get away from his family.
The RCMP tracked his phone to the Hamilton area, court heard, and police there located and arrested him, and he was returned to New Brunswick.
Investigators also secured warrants tracing the IP addresses associated with the social-media accounts to two apartments in the same building on Needham Street in Fredericton, Munn said, one of which was Alobaid’s home.
Devices were seized, the prosecutor said, and they contained evidence of Alobaid’s predatory online activities.
Remanded over defence’s protests
Upon convicting Alobaid of the four charges, Christie scheduled his sentencing hearing for March 5, and he ordered the preparation of a pre-sentence report and victim-impact statements for the court’s consideration at that time.
And since Alobaid had lost the presumption of innocence, Christie also ordered that he be remanded until sentencing.
Pate was clearly taken aback by that development and asked to be heard on the remand issue.
While Alobaid had originally been detained following his arrest, he was freed after a bail hearing in the fall of 2022 on strict conditions.
“Obviously, he was on pre-trial release,” Pate said of his client, noting the conditions to which he was subject were quite onerous.
The defence lawyer argued those conditions - which include house arrest and an ankle-bracelet monitor - should continue.
Pate said in his experience, an offender who’s been free on conditions is usually only remanded after being convicted after trial, not after entering guilty pleas.
His parents have deposited a financial surety with the court as a condition of his release, he said, and they are supervising him closely. Plus with the ankle bracelet, Pate said, authorities always know where Alobaid is.
“There’s no risk here of his leaving the jurisdiction,” he argued.
Furthermore, he said, the sentencing will be a complicated one, and he needs to be able to access his client repeatedly in the coming weeks to prepare.
Munn told the court there’s no agreement between the Crown and defence on sentence.
“I will be asking for a much lower sentence [than the Crown],” Pate said, adding he’ll also be arguing that his client’s time on house arrest should merit a remand credit to reduce his sentence.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion he’s going to receive more time than he’s done on remand,” the defence lawyer said. “He’s not a flight risk.”
Christie pointed out that Alobaid left New Brunswick when he realized the police knew who he was and suspected what he’d done.
“The officer never told him he was under arrest,” Pate said, so his client wasn’t evading arrest. “He doesn’t have to speak to the police.”
The judge said that may have been the case, but he was still remanding him pending sentence.
Court heard the prosecution plans to withdraw the 20 other related counts - which include sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching, other sexual-assault counts and uttering threats - at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Guilty pedophile. WoW we have way to many pedophiles in NB. This guy need real time ,but really you can not fix a pedophile so he will be out in the world doing it again. I hope the judge gives him the max. The poor girls need mental health care now and I hope they are getting it.