An Abbotsford student teacher who asked a 15-year-old female student to meet him and perform a sexual act will serve 21 days in jail and be on probation for two years.
Corey Hamade was sentenced on Friday afternoon in Abbotsford provincial court, and his jail time will be served on weekends beginning Jan. 13 at North Fraser Pretrial Centre.
“My client doesn’t need an introduction to the jail system on a full-time basis,” argued his lawyer Jack Harris.
Hamade pleaded guilty to a charge of invitation to sexual touching, and a charge of luring a child was stayed.
He was at Rick Hansen secondary doing a practicum toward a UBC education degree when the crime took place. He was 28 years old, and his victim was 15.
Hamade was only three months from becoming a qualified teacher. A local high school football star who went on to play for the Abbotsford Air Force and UBC Thunderbirds, he had a promising career as a coach and educator that was lost with his crime.
Two students at the school disclosed to school counsellors that the victim, who had a “school-girl crush” on Hamade, told them she was having an inappropriate relationship with the student teacher. Police were called to investigate on May 21, 2010.
The victim had asked Hamade to be her friend on Facebook. They later communicated regularly in instant messaging sessions. The girl received sexual images, but Hamade denies they came from him.
During an early-morning session they were engaged in a sexual conversation online when Hamade several times asked the girl to lift her shirt so he could see her breasts on a webcam, which she did. He said she should meet him at the parking lot for Centre Ice Abbotsford, where she could give him oral sex. No such meeting took place.
Police obtained portions of their communications, and there were 15 pages of transcripts as evidence.
Crown counsel Sylvia Domaradzki said the case was an abuse of trust, involved a child, and said Hamade’s conversations became increasingly sexual in nature. She asked for 90 days in jail, to be served intermittently.
Harris asked for 14 days, the minimum sentence under the law, and pointed out that Hamade, now 29, had no prior run-ins with the law, showed remorse, empathy and insight into his crime. He is also employed in the shipping department of a glass company in Aldergrove. His family – father, mother, two brothers, sister, aunt and uncle, appeared in court to support him.
Hamade has also already been on bail for 18 months, and observed strict conditions, Harris pointed out.
He also noted that media coverage of the case, including being on the front page of a newspaper distributed province-wide, had been an embarrassment to Hamade and his entire family.
Domaradzki argued that Hamade should be included in the national sex offender registry, but Harris successfully countered that this offence has been punitive enough without following Hamade for another 10 years.
Among the conditions of his probation are having no contact with the victim, to not be in the company of any girl under 16 except family, to provide a DNA sample, and to undergo assessments and counseling as directed by his probation officer.
Hamade was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.