She was by all accounts an outcast.

She’d trouble fitting in the real world — bullied and lonely at school, trying drugs to help herself feel better. No self-esteem. No self-confidence. No friends.

But on the Internet, she could be anyone she wanted and weave together a fantasy world where she was popular. Even if that meant pretending to be a desirable teenage boy.

In what is one of the strangest child porn and luring cases to pass through the London courthouse, or perhaps even in the country, a 24-year-old woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to nine charges involving the luring of three teenage girls into sending dirty selfies to her while she was impersonating another school mate.

The fiction began when the woman was a 17-year-old high school student who, as was found out later, was struggling with depression. A publication ban has been placed on the names of the victims and on her name, because she was a youth at the time of some of her crimes.

The crimes are a small sliver of the whole story. The woman set out on a complicated and manipulative course to woo and exploit other girls, not for sex, but for her own self-esteem.

It’s rare enough to have a woman, not a man, facing child porn charges, but this case was so unique, the Crown and the defence couldn’t offer Ontario Court Justice Eleanor Schnall any cases for comparison.

But the case is a chilling reminder of how wedded teens are to their electronic devices and to social media — and how vulnerable they are to a ruse.

The facts of the case laid out by assistant Crown attorney Tim Zuber involve three girls, all in various high schools. Two knew the woman by her real wallflower persona, one didn’t know her at all.

The earliest relationship began in 2006 when the victim was 13. She discovered a Facebook message she thought was from a boy at school telling her she was “beautiful and would like to get to know her.”

They began an intense online relationship through texts and social media and on the phone — but the person was really the accused disguising her voice.

They maintained the relationship for 2 1/2 years even though they never had a face-to face conversation.

The victim sent 10 photos of herself in provocative poses wearing underwear or posing naked.

While the victim was on vacation with her family, the accused left letters at her house, fraudulently signed as the boy. Later, the victim believed she met him at a short meeting — but the boy she met was the accused’s brother.

Then came a weirder twist. In 2008, the “boy” made a false confession to the victim saying he was really another boy impersonating a classmate at their school. The confession led the girl to break off the relationship.

The accused moved on. In 2009, posing as a boy from her high school, she contacted a 13-year-old girl she’d known from elementary school. For the next three years, she kept up a relentless communication with the girl, who had been a high achiever both in academics and sports.

The victim’s life began to spiral downward as the relationship intensified. She sent between 150 and 200 photos to the accused, some showing her naked or in a sexual pose.

The accused would send back images of aroused male genitalia plucked from other Internet sites.

The “boy” encouraged the victim to meet the accused, who he said was her friend. When a rare meeting was set up, the “boy” wouldn’t show up, but the accused would.

The victim quit high school, split from her peer group and spent most of her time worried about the online boyfriend. She would run to selected meeting places, often in sketchy areas of the city, only to not meet anyone.

In emotional victim impact statements, her parents described how the girl gave up her education and her future to deal with the boy’s issues. When he was invited to family events, he never showed up. When they would take away her phone and computer to stop the communications, she would sneak out to a pay phone to call him.

The relationship with her parents became so strained, she was admitted to hospital for psychiatric assessments and went to live in group homes.

“You changed the trajectory of my child’s life, and I worry about what the future holds,” her mother said to the accused.

But in June 2013, the girl finally became suspicious and contacted police.

During their investigation the accused confessed to her contacts. A photo was found of the second victim on the accused’s cell phone and the police discovered another 15-year-old victim who, at some point, had been living with the accused and her family.

She met a boy at their school where both she and the accused attended. The accused promised the girl to get the boy’s phone number.

After that the girl started getting texts from the boy — but it was actually from the accused girl.

The relationship went on from 2011 to early 2012, during which time the girl sent provocative sexual images of herself to the “boy” where she was naked or her genitals were exposed.

She would do whatever the “boy” asked and agreed to record sex acts with the accused.

At school the girl met the boy, usually with the accused nearby, and believed he was avoiding her.

The real boy had no idea about the ongoing online relationship and had been puzzled after he was “verbally assaulted” by other students, Zuber said, for poorly treating women in online relationships.

As troubling as the circumstances, the crimes in the case attract low sentencing ranges. The accused faces at least 90 days for possessing child porn. Her defence lawyer Marcia Hilliard asked for three years of probation on top of the jail sentence.

Zuber suggested a sentence of six months.

Schnall will give her decision on June 2.

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

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