BC student working with vulnerable kids jailed for sending explicit messages to teen

A BC student doing a work placement at a school for at-risk teens has been jailed for sending sexually explicit messages to a student.

The victim was 15 years old and attending an alternative education centre for students at risk of leaving school when she met Gulbag Singh Hothi, who was doing a practicum for his Child and Youth Care program at Douglas College.

Hothi was 27 years old at the time, and in the last week of his practicum he began sending the teen messages on Snapchat.

The messages soon became “highly” sexualized, and he sent explicit messages to her.

At one point, he tried to arrange to meet her and she made excuses that she was sick. She also said she couldn’t meet him because she was 15. He then invited her for dinner and drinks at his home.

The teen only went to school once that week, but when she did, Hothi tried to organize an in-person meeting with her. She made multiple excuses not to go, and afraid something might happen stopped going to school for a few days until Hothi’s work placement was over.

After Hothi went back to college, the teen told her teacher, who in turn called the police.

Hothi later pleaded guilty to child luring, and while Crown prosecutors wanted Hothi to do 12 months in jail, the judge sentenced him to 18 months of house arrest.

However, Crown prosecutors appealed the sentence, arguing Hothi should be incarcerated.

READ MORE: Kelowna child molester to spend 2.5 years in prison

“In no uncertain terms, he encouraged the victim to engage in various sexual acts with him,” BC Supreme Court Justice Andrea Ormiston said in an April 25 decision. “He treated the victim like an object to gratify his sexual desire and was well aware that it was entirely wrong.”

The Justice said it was aggravating that he was support staff at the teen’s school, and he exploited her, violated her trust and she stopped going to school.

“This was the very thing (he) was supposed to help prevent in his role as her support worker,” the Justice said. “While (he) was tasked with addressing the victim’s vulnerability, instead he exacerbated it.

“He harmed (the teen) by interfering with her schooling when this is already something that posed a challenge. He also made her anxious and afraid. But for her courage, the result could have been much worse.”

While no sexual encounter ever occurred, the Justice said a sentence of house arrest didn’t address his moral blameworthiness and the breach of trust.

Justice Ormiston said that while Hothi had made real progress in therapy since being on house arrest for the last seven-and-a-half months, a jail sentence was needed to show his behaviour was harmful and wrong.

Ultimately, the Justice sentenced him to four and a half months behind bars.