Promiscuous? Maybe. A victim? Absolutely, a Crown lawyer argued Friday.

Prosecutor Iain Currie dismissed a defence lawyer's suggestion a 14-year-old girl's sexual behaviour should mitigate the sentence for Brett Nelson, a 51-year-old former teacher who pleaded guilty to luring the teen via the Internet.

Coincidentally, the same teenage girl was central to a different, unrelated case in the same courtroom earlier in the day. In that instance, Owen Armstrong asked a judge to set aside a guilty plea in his case. He pleaded guilty in April to having sex with a 14-year-old girl at least three times.

The teen — referred to in court as AR — was the impetus behind a series of sexual conversations with Nelson, the judge was told. She had placed an ad on the online classified service seeking sexual contact with an older man.

Nelson responded, and quickly learned she was only 14 years old. That fact did not dissuade him from continuing a series of sexually explicit text chats over several weeks that seemed to be leading towards sexual contact between the two. The two never met although they exchanged nude photographs.

Bruneau told the court AR is the same teen in both the Nelson and Armstrong cases. She has claimed to have had sex with 250 older men in Kamloops.

"Perhaps she is not as innocent and vulnerable as others (her age)," said Bruneau, suggesting this kind of behaviour on her part could be considered mitigation in Nelson's case.

"She is a young girl who has made somewhat of a practice . . . of enjoying involving older men in this sort of thing. (Nelson) is not trying to shift the blame to her but she is not entirely an innocent type of girl."

Prosecutor Iain Currie said none of what the teen may have done with others has any bearing in this case, or on any case involving a man preying upon a vulnerable teen.

Nelson made a conscious choice, Currie said, to engage in a course of sexual conduct with an underage girl.

"The frightening nature of the Internet makes finding this kind of situation much too easy," said Currie, adding this kind of case is precisely why Parliament created sections in the Criminal Code dealing with Internet luring.

"It is something (Nelson) did on purpose. It is the precise danger Parliament addressed — adult men who are inclined to sexually abuse young girls can find willing victims on the Internet."

In the other case, Judge Rohrmoser was told Armstrong also met AR through a Craigslist ad. Armstrong and the girl got together several times and allegedly had sex at least three times.

He sought to change his guilty plea in May after the girl apparently wrote a letter indicating she lied to police about what happened between her and Armstrong.

Currie opposed the request to set aside Armstrong's guilty plea, however, saying there is independent evidence — including Armstrong's own statement to police — showing he committed the offences. After he was arrested Armstrong told police the girl looked older, that she was "well developed."

In the Armstrong case, Rohrmoser said he won't consider setting aside the guilty plea until he hears more evidence. The judge suggested he also wants the teenage girl called to court to testify.

In the Nelson case, Rohrmoser was told the former teacher — he was fired from the school district in 2004 after being caught in a sexual relationship with another teenage girl, a former student — was looking for excitement when he turned to the personal ads on Craigslist. He found AR's ad.

"What's the youngest you have had sex with?" she asked Nelson in the first exchange. "How old do you think I am?"

"Fourteen," he replied.

"Ya," she acknowledged.

"So?" Nelson continued.

"You don't care? LOL," the teen said.

Currie said Nelson pursued the teen, even after she told him she had run away from home, was pregnant and living in a Vancouver "crack shack."

"It's hard to imagine a more vulnerable person than a 14-year-old living on her own in a crack shack in Vancouver, and pregnant," Currie told the court.

"While (Nelson's) response was not the most calloused imaginable, his attempting to use that situation . . . so they could have sex is particularly galling."

Nelson also pleaded guilty to luring another teen, a friend of AR's who called Nelson after AR gave her Nelson's number.

TZ met Nelson once, when he gave the 13-year-old girl a ride to her elementary school, buying her a pack of cigarettes along the way. It was TZ's disclosure to her mother about where she got the cigarettes that led police to the "sexting" between AR and Nelson.

The Crown wants Nelson jailed for nine to 12 months. Judge Rohrmoser reserved his decision on Nelson's sentence.

Armstrong's application to set aside his guilty plea was also adjourned until a later date.

rkoopmans@kamloopsnews.ca