METRO VANCOUVER — A Coquitlam teen responsible for numerous swatting cases across the continent will spend several more months in jail for his crime.

The 17 year old, who can't be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was handed a sentence of 16 months in youth custody and another eight months to be served under supervision in the community.

In all, the teen pled guilty to 23 charges, including nine offences for criminal harassment, eight for public mischief, four counts for extortion and one for uttering threats.

During the reading of her sentencing decision in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court on Thursday, judge Patricia Janzen listed off the details of the teens crimes that occurred over roughly a one-year span in 2014.

Essentially, the teen was responsible for a number of "swatting" calls to police and law enforcement agencies in both Canada and the United States, with target of the calls being mostly female gamers he knew online or their families.

"Swatting" involves tricking emergency responders (a SWAT team) into deploying to a location where no emergency is taking place.

In many cases, the swatting calls involved a bomb threat, or a fake hostage taking, where the caller threatened to kill police or the specific target.

In one case, he called in a bomb threat to Disneyland that shut the theme park down.

In other instances, when the victims didn't acknowledge friend and follow requests or send him things that he wanted, such as photos, he would harass them and their families.

The teen was eventually arrested on Dec. 5 last year and has been in custody since.

In her decision, the judge noted a psychiatric and psychological assessment that she said painted a picture of a deeply troubled young person who is a high risk to reoffend.

The report suggested the teen has minimized his crimes and blamed the victims, showed no remorse and was motivated by the pleasure of the trouble he inflicted on his victims.

The report described him as having an emerging narcissistic personality disorder.

While the judge noted mitigating factors in her sentence included that he had no prior criminal record and he pleaded guilty saving court costs, she said aggravating factors were the impact the crimes had on the victims and that he continued to commit a number of offences after he was first charged.

"It is far more serious than a prank," Janzen said.

Court also heard about his troubled childhood and an abusive father.

The teen, who could be seen in the prisoners box at times fidgeting, was said to be a good student in his early years, but at some point things changed, with the judge suggesting "when real life" became too hard, he retreated to the online world.

"The last seven to eight years of your life has been a waste of time," Janzen said, adding he needs to make friends and engage in the "real world."

"You need to care again about yourself and others."

As part of his sentence, the teen must appear in front of the judge to update his progress every four months and serve 100 hours of community service.

He's also not allowed to contact any of his victims.

At the end of his sentencing, the teen's lawyer asked that a couple of laptops and a desk top computer be returned to his mother and brother, but the judge denied the request.

It was noted in court, Coquitlam RCMP still have the computers and are still searching the contents for evidence of other possible offences.

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