Johnson sentenced for child luring

32-year old Brandon Johnson was charged with child luring after sending repeated graphic invitations for sex to a 13-year old girl.

Her mother saw the texts, and after alerting police, arranged a creep-catcher-styled vigilante arrest, and along with two men, beat Johnson with a baseball bat, puncturing a lung and hospitalizing him for a week in March 2018.

Crown Counsel Paul Pearson said the case took this long to come to court because they had to get the Instagram messages from the central server in California after posts had been deleted.

Johnson pled guilty and apologized to the victim, her family, the community and the court yesterday, before receiving a sentence of 18 months in jail.

Outside the court, the victim’s mother said she was satisfied with the sentence

“I think that the Crown asked for everything very fairly and I was very happy that the judge agreed with him, and we’re setting a higher precedent for our children,” she said.

The mother and two men who beat Johnson all received conditional sentences in January 2019, and after a year without issues were cleared of any criminal records.

In sentencing, Judge Brian Harvey said Johnson would have been sentenced for 2 years except for the beating.

Johnson will be on probation for two years after his release.