Snapchat sex offender gets four years
Daniel Leigh Hewitt, 37, of Oromocto, posed as 20-year-old online to lure underage girls to public park, where he touched them sexually in separate encounters in 2021
A Hoyt man who lured two teenage girls to a public park and molested them almost three years ago is headed to prison for a four-year stint, after a judge accepted a joint recommendation on sentence.
Daniel Leigh Hewitt, 37, formerly of Watling Crescent in Oromocto but now living in Hoyt, appeared before Fredericton provincial court Judge Scott Brittain on Tuesday afternoon for a sentencing hearing.
The offender pleaded guilty in June to two counts of touching minors for a sexual purpose and two counts of online luring.
The two victims can’t be named, as there’s a court-ordered publication ban in place protecting their identities.
Crown prosecutor Karen Lee and defence lawyer Ron Morris presented a joint recommendation on sentence: four years in prison for the sexual offences.
The facts leading to the charges against Hewitt and his guilty pleas had already been presented to the court heard this year.
Lee told Brittain on June 1 that RCMP officers launched an investigation after they received a complaint in January 2021 indicating a 15-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted at Anniversary Park in Oromocto. Soon thereafter, investigators learned of an almost identical incident involving another underage girl.
Police learned a man going by the username Standy506 had been communicating through Snapchat with the 15-year-old girl for several days before the incident at the park, and that online chat had become sexual in nature.
The prosecutor previously told the court the Snapchat sessions led to “an exchange of intimate images.”
The girl told Standy506 she was in Grade 9, and he claimed to be 20 years old.
Ultimately, the child and Standy506 - later discovered to be Hewitt - met at the park the early afternoon of Jan. 21, 2021, and the teenager immediately realized the man she’d been communicating with was much older than he’d led her to believe.
Nevertheless, she hugged Hewitt, but he wouldn’t release her, and he slid his hand into her underwear, rubbing her vagina without penetrating her.
Hewitt left the area, court heard, but police soon learned he met another 15-year-old girl nearby just three hours later.
The investigation revealed Hewitt had also engaged that girl in Snapchat communication that was sexual in tone, and arranged to meet her as well.
“He had her sit on his lap,” Lee told court in June.
She said the offender slid his hand up her shirt, touched her vaginal area and got her to touch his penis.
That same night, the girls discovered Standy506 had deactivated his Snapchat profile.
The prosecutor argued Tuesday that among the aggravating factors in the case were the crimes themselves, Hewitt’s awareness of the girls’ ages, his deceit about his age and his efforts to hide his identity.
Kids more vulnerable in digital age
While the molestation was the more serious of Hewitt’s criminal behaviour, Lee said, his ability to insert himself into these minors’ personal lives anonymously through Snapchat was concerning.
“Getting access to them in their bedrooms has become easier,” the prosecutor said, noting that young victims are now more vulnerable given the technology that they and potential predators now use.
Lee acknowledged there were mitigating factors in the case, such as Hewitt’s lack of a prior criminal record and his guilty pleas, though they didn’t come early in the process.
“I do see that he’s in counselling,” the prosecutor said, referring to information in Hewitt’s pre-sentence report.
But she noted that the report indicates the counselling is for the trauma and stress Hewitt indicates arose from his arrest and the public learning of his crimes. That’s not the same as getting counselling for the impulses that led him to commit his crimes, she said.
“I believe Mr. Hewitt is struggling with what’s happened here,” said Morris. “It’s been a serious, serious struggle for him.”
Yes, he said, the public airing of his client’s dirty laundry has given rise to shame and guilt, but also wants to ensure he never does anything like this again.
“He’s always been gainfully employed,” Morris said of Hewitt, adding that he’s no longer in his job as a purchasing clerk at Base Gagetown and might not be able to return to it after he’s served his time.
His parents, fiancée and friends still stand by him, the defence lawyer said, and they’ll be there for him once he gets out of prison.
Hewitt’s psychologist reports he “has totally withdrawn from the community,” Morris said, and is wrestling with the emotional and psychological fallout of his crimes and the prosecution.
Morris emphasized that his client’s guilty pleas meant the victims - who no longer reside in New Brunswick - didn’t have to testify.
He urged the court to accept the jointly recommended prison term.
“I want to apologize to each victim, but not only to the victims, but their families,” Hewitt said when given the chance to address the court Tuesday.
He said whatever sentence the court imposes, he’d do what he has to do to address his issues and to ensure he never finds himself in such a situation again.
Supreme Court of Canada decision
When Hewitt pleaded guilty June 1 to the four crimes, Morris had informed the court he planned to challenge the constitutionality of the mandatory minimum sentence of one year behind bars for each luring offence, as outlined in the Criminal Code of Canada.
In fact, the issue was already before the Supreme Court of Canada in a case out of Quebec.
The attorney general of that province had sought to appeal a judge’s ruling that the mandatory minimum luring sentence was unconstitutional, and had imposed a five-month jail term, concurrent to a sentence for another related crime.
Canada’s top court rendered its decision on that case - R v Marchand - on Nov. 3, and it was something of a good news/bad news situation for Hewitt.
The Supreme Court of Canada agreed the mandatory minimum sentence was unconstitutional, but it also reinforced the notion that online luring of children for the purpose of sex crimes had to be viewed as serious.
It struck the five-month jail term imposed in Marchand and ordered a one-year term of incarceration, and noted it should be consecutive to the other sentence.
So while the top court still took issue with yet another mandatory minimum sentence prescribed by the Criminal Code, it also courts should nevertheless send strong messages in such cases that luring won’t be tolerated and that they’re separate crimes from the sexual offences to which they often give rise.
Recommended term deemed proper
Brittain said Tuesday that Hewitt’s crimes are serious in nature, and higher courts have directed sentencing judges to take a hard line against those who victimize children sexually.
But the four-year recommendation clearly falls within the range of acceptable sentences for such crimes, he said, and he accepted it.
The judge directed that the four-year prison term was to be reduced by nine days to give Hewitt credit for the short period he was remanded between his arrest and his release on conditions following a bail hearing back in April 2021.
Brittain also imposed mandatory orders requiring Hewitt to submit a DNA sample for inclusion in a criminal database, barring the offender from possessing firearms and other weapons for 10 years following the completion of his sentence, and directing him to register as a sex offender for 20 years after his sentence.
The judge also ordered that a cellphone seized from Hewitt be forfeited to the Crown; that he stay away from public areas, including parks, where children can be expected to be present; to refrain from employment or volunteer work that would place him in a position of trust or authority over minors, to have no communication with minors by any telecommunications means; and to have no contact with the two victims in the case.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
This pedophile should have received more time but 4 years will due until he does it again. You can't fix a pedophile -- Teach your kids about these people as they have been around sense the beginning of time :( sad to say --
How embarrassing that his fiancee doesn't think she deserves even a shred better than a bi-polar pedophile. Do better.