Sex predator Christopher Corday pretended to be a teenage girl called Crystal in an attempt to lure young girls into having sex.

The 22-year-old Hamilton Parish man created a fake Facebook account for 17-year-old ‘Crystal Simmons’ and used it to offer a 14-year-old girl $1,000 if she would sleep with him.

He also approached an 11-year-old, bombarding her with online messages and phone calls, and a 16-year-old girl, using the fake account.

In the first case of its kind in Bermuda, Corday was jailed for 18 months yesterday, and ordered to undergo sexual rehabilitation while in prison. He must also serve two years of probation on completion of his sentence, which takes into account the time Corday has already spent in jail since his arrest in October and guilty plea in November.

Corday used his online persona to approach the two youngest girls between May and June last year.

The 14-year-old, who prosecutors praised as a ‘smart cookie’, was the first to raise the alarm when she confided in one of her teachers that an older man was harassing her on Facebook and was trying to have sex with her.

Her teacher took her to the school’s guidance counsellor where she disclosed more details about what was happening to her, telling her counsellor that she was on Facebook the previous evening when a girl named ‘Crystal’ had sent a message to her inbox.

She had communicated with ‘Crystal’ once before on Facebook. After some introductory greetings, ‘Crystal’ said she was 17-years-old and asked the victim’s age.

‘Crystal’ then went on to tell the victim she would pay her $1,000 to have sex with Corday and to add him on Facebook. The victim declined, telling ‘Crystal’ she thought Corday was ugly and being paid to have sex was “nasty”.

The victim then stopped communicating with ‘Crystal’, at which point Corday himself messaged the young girl over Facebook, lavishing her with compliments, telling her he was only 17 and wanted to have sex with her “for fun”.

Police subsequently arrested Corday on June 25 on suspicion of luring.

Corday initially denied the allegations, claiming his Facebook account had been hacked. However, he asked to speak with the victim’s family so he could apologise because it was his Facebook account that was used to harass her.

Bailed by police, Corday then approached the 11-year-old, again as ‘Crystal’, telling the girl he wanted to ‘f*** her’ and asking her to sneak out of her house to meet him. He continued to bombard the girl with messages and phone calls for several months, until she contacted police and he was arrested on August 29.

Interviewed a day later, Corday admitted setting up the fake Facebook account and said the purpose had been to have sex with the victims, and to annoy them, a claim police and prosecutors dismissed.

The 16-year-old was Corday’s first victim, who he approached as himself in May 2012. Corday complimented her and asked if she would like to “chill” with him sometime. She refused, saying she didn’t know him and didn’t want to know him.

‘Crystal’ later messaged the girl in May 2013, again stating that ‘Crystal’ knew a guy who liked the victim.

Believing ‘Crystal’ to actually be Corday’s girlfriend, using a pseudonym, the victim responded that she thought ‘Crystal’ was really weird for making fake accounts to get people “to go with her boyfriend” and suggested “she needed a slap”.

‘Crystal’ did not respond.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner sentenced Corday in Magistrates’ Court yesterday, following the 22-year-old’s guilty plea in November when he admitted to two counts of communicating with an 11-year-old girl, and a 14-year old girl, for the purpose of having unlawful carnal knowledge, as well as intruding on their privacy, and intruding on the privacy of a third girl, aged between 14 and 16 at the time.

With no legal precedent for a case of this kind in Bermuda, prosecutor Susan Mulligan and defence lawyer Marc Daniels spent much of the court proceedings arguing over the appropriate length of sentence.

Ms Mulligan argued that Corday should serve between 20 and 28 months in prison because: “If these children had not managed to resist [Corday], they would have been victims of further offences committed.”