OTTAWA - Calling him a puppeteer pulling his terrorized victims' strings in "premeditated torture," a judge sentenced a 20-year-old man to eight years Friday for extorting teen girls into making child pornography via web cam.
Ryan McCann covered his eyes and slumped in the prisoner's box as Justice Celynne Dorval imposed sentence.
"When manipulation failed, his weapons of choice were threats which rendered the complainants powerless and unable to control their lives," Dorval said. "Contrary to his fictional characters, each one of these young women is a 'real' person.
"He leaves behind him a trail of scarred and emotionally fragile young women."
McCann was acquitted of obstruction of justice but pleaded guilty to 26 charges including extortion, luring, making child pornography and uttering death threats against 19 victims between June 2008 and February 2009.
He also admitted that two girls -- both under 16, too young to consent -- performed oral sex on him.
McCann's sophisticated scheme trapped the girls in a "web of lies and fear," Dorval said.
He snared the girls with offers of cash for tame web work for his purported company, Talen's Playground.
Then, posing as 11 different online identities the girls believed were real, he blackmailed and threatened them into ever more degrading sex acts, including penetrating themselves with objects and simulating oral sex until they choked.
In one video, a girl is forced to perform while the web cam captures her teddy bears lined up on her bed behind her.
"This is a very graphic image of the sexualizing of children," Dorval said.
There were "no barriers to his extortion," she said, noting that he threatened one victim until he believed she'd commit suicide.
Also disturbing is the attitude he showed detectives.
They told McCann when he was arrested in April 2009 that they realized he was acting alone because all his identities confused the words "their" and "there."
"So next time, I'll learn to spell," McCann replied.
Three years ago, a psychiatrist concluded McCann appeared to lack the capacity for remorse and can inflict significant emotional and psychological harm when he thinks he has control and power.
Dorval banned McCann from communicating with a child under 16 over the Internet for life, along with going to parks or pools and working or volunteering with children after he gets out.
His sentence is six years after two-for-one credit for time served.
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