Convicted online predator Jeffrey Goddard pleaded guilty to two breach of probation charges on Tuesday afternoon in Abbotsford provincial court, admitting he again used social media and an alias to contact teens.
Goddard was released from prison in February, when he reached his mandatory release date after serving two-thirds of a 20-month sentence for using social media and false identities to contact eight youths aged 12 to 16.
By the summer he was charged with similar crimes.
The 22-year-old was charged with four counts of breaching his probation after he posed on Facebook as a landscaping company supervisor. After weekly contact with a teen, he told him and his friend, both 15, he would pay them to work for his company. Goddard would supervise their work in the backyard of the residence where he was renting a room.
They would eat lunch in his bedroom, and they saw him on the Internet, using Facebook and Skype to communicate with other teen boys. He made sexual jokes with one of these contacts, and told the teens that his contact was gay, and they were dating.
Crown prosecutor Amy Read said Goddard’s actions were consistent with “grooming” behaviour practised by sex offenders.
Goddard did not make sexual advances toward the boys.
After two weeks of work, the boys had not been paid. Their fathers became involved and tried to collect the funds. A neighbour told them “Ryan’s” real identity, and after they learned about Goddard’s past crimes, they complained to police.
On Aug. 9, police executed a search warrant and found computers with Internet connections in Goddard’s bedroom.
Judge B.G. Hoy adjourned sentencing to Dec. 20, and requested reports from probation officers about Goddard’s progress in counselling and treatment programs.