Article content continued

“I’ve made a very stupid mistake.”

His blood-shot eyes make way for tears as Duiker probes him.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No!” he exclaims.

“If I had a girlfriend I wouldn’t be here.”

He goes on to tell the officer that he recently broke up with his long-term girlfriend and thought that this was going to help him get over it but he stops himself mid-sentence.

“Oh it’s all bullshit,” he says. “They’re just excuses.”

Only a few bother putting up a defence. One said he didn’t know it was illegal. Another said he only wanted a massage. Most just sit silently waiting for it to be over.

“You are rolling the dice,” Duiker says. “You are either getting robbed or having sex. It’s a bad decision.”

Meanwhile, the officers continue to communicate with more men online.

Despite the website being littered with dozens upon dozens of other profiles offering all manner of sexual fetishes, the small team is engaging electronically with as many as 20 men at a time.

Their online ads are designed to look ordinary. Too much can lead to too few contacts. Too little and they will be drowned out in the sea of naked and near-naked profiles.

By the end of the night, the ads, sandwiched between hundreds of legitimate offerings, will be viewed thousands of times. By the time the bedside clock hits 10 p.m., a total of nine men will be charged.

But even after the ads have been removed, officers’ phones will continue to buzz for weeks, even months, later from johns who screen capture the ads and keep their own files.

A lingering reminder about just how much work police still have left to do.