Corygon Allicock, the 36-year-old Toronto man convicted Tuesday of child abduction, child luring and inviting sexual touching from a person younger than 16, was sentenced to five years in prison, a Stratford judge decided.
A Toronto man who pleaded guilty in Stratford court to charges of child abduction, child luring and invitation to sexual touching will now spend his next five years in prison.
When sentencing Corygon Allicock Tuesday, Justice Kathryn McKerlie described the “combination of the luring and the abduction” of his child victim as “horrific.”
“It is a statutory aggravating factor for sentencing that the victim of the offense was a child and the disparity in their ages is also an aggravating factor for sentencing,” McKerlie said while outlining her reasons for accepting a joint submission from the Crown and defence. “The planning and calculation involved is aggravating. The Crown accurately described a planned, calculated abduction of a (young child) by a 35-year-old man after inviting (them) to engage in sexual acts.
As a court order prohibits the publication of any details that may directly or indirectly identify the victim in this case, many of the facts that were read in court Tuesday cannot be shared.
The abduction took place in Perth County late last year after Allicock, posing as a 20-year-old man, began communicating with the victim online via Snapchat.
On separate occasions leading up to the abduction, the court heard the Etobicoke man messaged the victim with sexual requests and asked for videos of the victim showing their body in a sexually explicit nature.
Eventually, the victim left their family home in the middle of the night to meet Allicock, who took them by taxi to his home in Etobicoke. The victim was eventually found in Allicock’s home by Toronto police after OPP investigators traced an IP address that was linked to a smartphone application used by the victim while they were missing to communicate with a friend.
Three other charges, including one laid in March after Allicock allegedly breached court-ordered bail conditions by communicating directly with the victim via Snapchat, were withdrawn at the request of the Crown.
Prior to sentencing, Crown lawyer Elizabeth Wilson shared victim-impact statements written by the victim’s mother and aunt detailing the mental toll the abduction had – and continues to have – on the victim and the victim’s family and friends.
“I never felt so much fear and anxiety,” the victim’s mother wrote about the realization her child had been abducted “I could not breathe. I had to find her. …I’ve never felt so scared. I felt like I was dying inside.”
Addressing the court before his sentencing, Allicock said he was sorry for the fear he caused.
“I’d just like to apologize to the family and let them know that I didn’t mean to bring this fear into their lives, and I’d just like to let them know that it will never happen again,” Allicock said after twice being told by McKerlie to speak louder.
While McKerlie underscored the seriousness of Allicock’s offences, she said his lack of a previous criminal record and his early guilty plea, which kept the victim from having to testify at trial, were at least somewhat mitigating factors.
Allicock was also ordered not to communicate with the victim and their mother while he’s serving his sentence and was prohibited from being within 10 kilometers of any place of employment, education or residence in which he knows the victim to be. He is further prohibited from visiting any public place where people younger than 16 are present or communicating with anyone younger than 16 unless he’s directly supervised by of one of his parents.
Allicock’s name, address and information about all three offenses will be added to the sexual offenders’ registry, and he will be required to comply with the Sexual Offender Information Registration Act for the rest of his life. Allicock is also subject to a 20-year weapons prohibition, cannot work where he would be in a position of authority or trust over anyone younger than 16, and is prohibited from using social media for any reason whatsoever.