What are the best defences to the charge of luring a child?

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What are the best defences to the charge of luring a child?

The best defence to a child luring charge will depend on the facts of the specific case.

However, some common defenses that may be raised in these cases include: 

• The accused person did not communicate to commit an offence: In order to be convicted of child luring, the prosecution must prove that the accused communicated with the underaged person for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a sexual or abduction offense against them. If the crown prosecutor cannot prove this, then the offence is not made out.
• Not knowing or believing the person was underage: This only applies if the accused can show they took all reasonable steps to ascertain the child’s age and still reasonably believed they were not underage.
• The accused was entrapped: This may come up if an undercover officer pretending to be a child induces the accused to commit the offence, or provides them an opportunity to do so without reasonable suspicion. For example, if a police officer randomly messaged you from a fake account made out to look like it belongs to a 15-year-old and said, “hey, want some nude photographs,” when the police had no evidence to suggest that you are the kind of person who would commit this type of crime, then this might be entrapment.