A Whitehorse man was sentenced this week to 15 months in jail for luring an underage girl online and distributing sexually explicit material to another.

Billy Callahan-Smith, 18, reached out to two pre-teen girls on Facebook last spring.

He messaged the first, asking how old she was. She told him she was 12, and he later offered her two iPods in exchange for sex.

Callahan-Smith asked to be “friends with benefits” with the other girl, also 12 years old.

When she blocked him, he created a new account on the social media site and sent her a photo of himself with his penis visible.

He asked both girls not to tell anyone about what he was doing.

In April 2014, the mother of the first girl contacted RCMP, concerned that Callahan-Smith was saying sexual things to her daughter online.

She permitted police to access the girl’s Facebook account, and an RCMP officer saw the messages Callahan-Smith had sent.

He was arrested at his house and released on bail. When the second set of allegations came to light, he was rearrested. He pleaded guilty to three charges.

In a victim impact statement, the second girl said she is scared to walk alone or be approached by men she doesn’t know.

“He said he’s seen me around and knows where I live,” she said in her written statement. “I no longer have trust in people like before.”

“I am concerned about the risk Mr. Callahan-Smith poses to youth,” Judge Michael Cozens said in his decision Monday. “His attraction to prepubescent females is extremely disconcerting.

Defence lawyer Kim Hawkins said Callahan-Smith may be an adult in age, but his mental age is much younger, which affects his moral culpability. He has cognitive issues and a low IQ.

“We’re dealing with someone who doesn’t have a full set of tools to work with,” Hawkins said at the sentencing hearing in November.

This was apparent by the lack of sophistication Callahan-Smith had when committing his crimes, particularly the fact that he made no attempts to be anonymous, she said.

But Crown prosecutor Bonnie Macdonald said though the young man lacks self-control, he knew what he was doing was wrong. His pleas that the girls keep his advances a secret shows that, she said.

“Had he had the opportunity, had he not been stopped, the Crown submits this would have gone ... further,” said Macdonald.

Hawkins said Callahan-Smith, a member of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation, grew up in a tight-knit family.

As an only child, however, he’s used to getting his way and becomes volatile when he doesn’t.

When he stayed at the Youth Achievement Centre in Whitehorse, he’d kick and throw things and punch holes in the walls.

The Crown posited that aggravating factors in this case are Callahan-Smith’s attraction to young girls and that he is at a high risk for sexually reoffending.

“His continued incarceration will only address public safety concerns in the very short-term,” his Gladue report states.

“It will not provide for any longer-term therapeutic solutions that will ultimately be of greater value to Billy and to the public in general.”

What Callahan-Smith needs is treatment for sexual deviancy, said Cozens.

“If he does not receive and actively engage in treatment and alter his behaviour through this treatment, there is every reason to believe he will reoffend and that this reoffending will cause harm,” the judge said.

Cozens sentenced Callahan-Smith to the mandatory minimum for each offence – one year for luring and 90 days for making sexually explicit material available to a child.

According to the Criminal Code, luring is defined as communicating, via Internet or phone, with someone who is under the age of 16 in an attempt to commit sexual assault or sexual interference.

Taking into account the time Callahan-Smith has spent in custody since his arrest last year, he has 59 days left to serve. Then he will spend three years on probation.

During that time, he’s banned from attending any park, daycare, public pool or location where people under the age of 16 are present. He also must not possess any device that has Internet access, except with his probation officer’s permission.

He must take part in programming as instructed by his probation officer.

Callahan-Smith’s name will also be entered into the national sex offender registry.