Man charged with child luring was convicted of trading rum for sex with teen

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This article was published 16/04/2025 (186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Ontario man accused of luring a girl online before travelling to Winnipeg to sexually assault her was previously convicted of obtaining sex from a vulnerable teen who later died by suicide.

The Winnipeg Police Service counter-exploitation unit launched an investigation in March into allegations the man, from Red Lake, Ont., north of Kenora, was luring a girl in her mid-teens.

Investigators learned the suspect began communicating with the victim using private messaging on a social-media platform in December, police said Wednesday, slowly gaining her trust.

As a relationship progressed, the suspect arranged to meet the victim in person, police alleged, and travelled to Winnipeg in early April.

Officers found the pair in a Winnipeg home Friday, arrested the man and learned he had sexually assaulted her there, police said.

It’s unclear how long the suspect was in Winnipeg before officers arrested him.

Scott Christopher Alcorn, 49, is charged with sexual assault; sexual interference; luring a person under 16 years; and making available, distributing or selling sexually explicit material to a person under 16.

He was detained in custody ahead of court proceedings.

Alcorn was convicted in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench in December 2020 of one count of obtaining sexual services for consideration from a person under 18 and given a 15-month jail term.

Alcorn had traded a 60-ounce bottle of rum for sex with the 16-year-old girl on June 30, 2015, court heard. He twice offered alcohol to the girl, first in June and later in August that same year, Parole Board of Canada records state.

His victim died by suicide in 2016.

She was described in court as a high-risk youth with multiple mental health and addiction issues who traded sex to survive. Alcorn and the girl talked over social media, and Alcorn agreed to give the girl a bottle of liquor in exchange for intercourse, court heard at trial.

Parole records indicated the girl was living at an address “known to house vulnerable victims,” where girls were made to have intercourse with men.

A secret recording of the pair having sex was made by a pimp and child pornographer, Kevin John Rose, at his Winnipeg home. Rose was sentenced in 2017 to 21 years in prison for sexually exploiting the girl and five others.

Alcorn later had the August encounter with the teen at his own home, parole records said.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal struck down Alcorn’s 15-month jail term in 2021 and imposed a sentence of five years in prison, less time served, amounting to a further three-and-a-half-year sentence.

The Court of Appeal ruled Alcorn’s original sentencing judge erred by not treating the crime with the same gravity as other sexual offences against children.

Alcorn applied for leave to appeal the increased sentence to the Supreme Court of Canada, which was dismissed in June 2022.

He was granted full parole in April 2023, a parole board decision said.

The decision noted Alcorn had a limited and dated record, including property offences, obtaining sexual services and order breaches.

The parole board found he had demonstrated a commitment to reducing his risk for future offending while in prison.

Officials did not encounter issues supervising Alcorn while he was on day parole, the parole board noted.

The 2023 decision said Alcorn had advised officials he planned to move out of province to live with a family member and get a job.

Correctional officials assessed Alcorn at the time as a low risk to reoffend sexually and in general.

Alcorn alleged in a 2022 lawsuit that he was badly assaulted at the Airport Motor Inn at 1800 Ellice Ave. on the night of Sept. 26, 2020, before he was convicted later that year.

Alcorn’s court filings said he rented a room for the night and was later disturbed by drunken neighbours in an adjacent suite, who he alleged assaulted him so badly he had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

The lawsuit, which lawyer Bruce Haddad filed on Alcorn’s behalf in the Court of King’s Bench in September 2022, remains before the court.

The hotel and its owner, both named defendants, have denied liability for Alcorn’s injuries in court filings.

— with files from Adam Treusch

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca