A Manitoba man convicted for the third time of making harassing phone calls will have his dialling finger under close scrutiny for the next three years.

Jean Popeil, 37, was sentenced Wednesday to five months house arrest after admitting to making a series of sexually charged phone calls to a 15-year-old girl in 2010 and 2011.

Popeil has two related convictions involving calls to strangers dating back to 1995 and 2001. Court heard Popeil specifically targeted his most recent victim, who he knew through a family member.

Judge Anne Krahn sentenced Popeil to an additional three years supervised probation, during which time he must provide his phone records to a probation officer and provide a full accounting of every person called. Krahn also prohibited Popeil from having any unsupervised contact with children under 18.

Crown attorney Neil Steen opposed a conditional sentence, arguing it would require that Popeil maintain a land line telephone, "his tool for committing crimes."

Krahn said she was concerned Popeil would lose his home and job if he was sent to jail, jeopardizing his rehabilitation.

"If you are not rehabilitated you will continue to pose a risk to the community... and to teenagers and perhaps the offences will escalate," Krahn said.

Popeil was suffering from undiagnosed depression and anxiety issues at the time of the offences, defence lawyer Frank Coniglio said at a hearing last week, noting Popeil made no attempts to turn things physical.

"We have a man who struggled with some mental health challenges, who maybe didn't do everything he could along the way to address those challenges," Coniglio said.

Society today sexualizes teenagers and it is not unusual that a man would find a teenager sexually attractive, Coniglio said.

"I don't accept the submission of Mr. Coniglio," Krahn told Popeil Wednesday. "I certainly agree that teenagers are sexualized, but that does not make it okay for you to target somebody who is almost 20 years younger than you for your own sexual gratification."

dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @deanatwpgsun