While taking sex offender programming in the community, convicted child lurer Ethan James Fergusson was simultaneously texting and phoning a 17-year-old boy, begging him to send nude photos.
He was struggling to control his urges, comparing himself to an alcoholic, a Saskatoon Queen’s Bench courtroom heard this week during Fergusson’s dangerous offender hearing.
At the time, Fergusson was serving a sentence of two years less a day for child luring and possessing child pornography. He had been released from jail and was serving the remainder of his sentence in a community training residence (CTR), also known as a halfway house, so that he could receive sex offender programming.
Fergusson was asked to leave his weekly group sessions in May 2017 when facilitators learned he was being investigated for new child luring and child pornography offences. His release was revoked and he returned to jail.
Crown prosecutor Leslie Dunning is arguing for a dangerous offender designation with a fixed-length sentence followed by a long-term supervision order. Defence lawyer Lisa Watson is opposing the designation.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Fergusson’s 17-year-old target refused to send any nude photos and told his father, who called police.
Officers searched a cellphone that Fergusson was prohibited from having and discovered 29 child porn images, mostly of the boy Fergusson had been contacting. He told police that he’d engaged in sex acts with the boy, starting when the victim was eight years old and ending a day before he was sentenced for unrelated child luring in 2016.
Fergusson pleaded guilty to sexual assault between 2008 and 2015, procuring a child between 2008 and 2017, making child porn between 2011 and 2013, two counts of luring a child between 2014 and 2017 and possessing child porn.
The agreed facts show Fergusson had been trying to contact other sex offenders, including repeat child porn offender Shane Pattison and convicted voyeur Kyle Hameluck.
He wrote letters to Pattison; court heard the men met in jail and that Fergusson, who didn’t have many friends, wanted to stay in touch with him. Fergusson’s probation officer, Angie Pollom, said it was a “red flag.”
Sex offender programming consists of three components: education, treatment and maintenance. Fergusson still needs to finish the treatment portion, group facilitators testified.
Court heard Fergusson actively participated in the program, acknowledged the harm he had caused his victims and wanted more treatment. He had also asked for individual counselling on multiple occasions, but he wasn’t considered an immediate priority.
Pollom, who also helped run the sex offender program, said Fergusson’s reasons for counselling were vague, he wasn’t suicidal and he had both family and community support. Facilitators encouraged him to focus on the group work for the time being.
Resources are scarce when it comes to free, one-on-one counsellors who are comfortable working with sex offenders, Pollom testified.
During cross-examination, she told Watson she wished Fergusson had used his supports before reoffending. She agreed with Watson that he was previously told to deal with his “personal issues” outside of the group setting, and that he had listed one of his coping strategies as “seeking help.”