A former VicPD special constable has been sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of luring a 15-year-old girl he met while working at a summer hockey camp in Port Alberni.
In a decision released February 6th, Provincial Court Judge Lamperon sentenced Foster Chadwick Martin to one year in jail followed by 18 months of probation.
Martin, who was 20-years-old at the time of the offence, had been working as an on-ice assistant coach at the West Coast Hockey Prep Camp in July 2020 when he began communicating with a 15-year-old participant through social media.
Following a multi-day trial, the court found that Martin used Instagram and Snapchat to message the teen and arranged to meet her at the Alberni Valley Multiplex with the intention of her performing oral sex on him.
The judge said the Crown proved the child luring charge beyond a reasonable doubt, but the court was not satisfied that sexual activity actually occurred. Martin had originally faced four charges including sexual assault, sexual touching and extortion but was acquitted of those offences.
According to the ruling, Martin’s communication with the teen began shortly after she attended the hockey camp in July 2020 and escalated into sexual messages about a week later.
The judge found the offence particularly serious because Martin abused a position of trust connected to his coaching role.
“But for his position he would not have come to know [the victim] and would not have obtained her contact information,” the judge wrote.
The court also heard that the victim experienced significant psychological harm, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, self-harm and two suicide attempts in the years following the incident. She also stopped playing hockey after the events.
At sentencing, the Crown sought a custodial sentence of 12 to 18 months, while the defence argued the sentence should be served in the community under a conditional sentence order.
Judge Lamperon rejected that request, saying jail was necessary to emphasize denunciation and deterrence in offences involving children.
“It is quite rare that courts impose conditional sentence orders where an offender commits a sexual offence against a child,” the judge wrote.
While Martin had no prior criminal record, was relatively young at the time of the offence and was assessed as a low risk to reoffend, the court found those factors did not outweigh the seriousness of the crime.
Martin had previously worked as a special constable with VicPD before his arrest in 2022. The court noted the conviction will likely prevent him from pursuing his goal of becoming a police officer.
In addition to jail time and probation, the court ordered a no-contact order with the victim, a 10-year weapons prohibition, DNA collection and registration on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.
