Predator used Snapchat to lure children for sexual abuse; girls struggling now, court told

A Winnipeg man who used the social media app Snapchat to lure his young victims into having unprotected sex with him filmed some of the encounters.

Nathan Donovan Marinko appeared in court Monday morning for a sentencing hearing before provincial court Judge Lisa LaBossiere.

He pleaded guilty in November 2024 to two counts of luring and sexual interference, and one count each of possessing and making child sexual abuse images, stemming from two separate incidents in 2023.

Court heard Marinko, who was 22 or 23 at the time of the incidents, added two young girls on Snapchat. The app has a chat function and a feature enabling users to send photos to each other that disappear after they are opened.

The interactions led to Marinko having sex with one victim and infecting her with chlamydia. In another instance, Marinko bought liquor for a teen and had sex with her when she was drunk.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Clark submitted several child sexual abuse images and videos in his sentencing submission, including some showing one of Marinko’s victims, taken during a sexual encounter at a park.

LaBossiere asked that the submissions be viewed only as long as absolutely necessary.

“I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn to say this is extremely traumatic material for anyone to view and I want to ensure… that the impact upon myself is limited to exactly what I need to see and not one second more,” she said during the hearing.

Court heard the pre-teen victim began chatting with Marinko over Snapchat in April 2023. Even after telling the him her age, he began sending her photographs of his penis. The victim would send nude photographs of herself to him in return, Clark told court.

Soon after, the man gave the victim his phone number and they arranged to meet in person in the girl’s hometown to have sex. The meetings happened several times, Clark said.

In May that year, Marinko bought vodka at the girl’s request and brought it to the their usual meeting place, a local park. The victim drank until she was drunk. They had sex and Marinko took photos and videos of the act.

The victim was intoxicated from the alcohol and was having trouble talking and moving, Clark told court.

After the meet-up, the victim called a friend to meet her at the park and walk her home. After she got home she took a shower, but when victim’s mother checked up on her, she found her unresponsive, covered in vomit. The mother called an ambulance and took the girl to the local hospital.

The girl’s father checked her phone and found messages between his daughter and Marinko, and called the police.

He was arrested in August 2023.

Court heard that in January of that year Marinko had added and began messaging a teen girl on Snapchat. They exchanged messages and the victim told Marinko how old she was, and he told her his age.

They stopped messaging briefly but then began again and ended up meeting up outside her house late one night. Over the next few months she snuck him inside and he frequently spent the night. In April 2023, the accused had sex with her without a condom.

Following their unprotected sex the accused gave the victim an emergency “Plan B” contraceptive.

In early May, the victim told her grandmother, who she lived with at the time, that she had sex with Marinko. The grandmother took her to a clinic to be tested for sexually transmitted infections. The tests came back positive for chlamydia.

The victim also confessed how old Marinko actually was; at the time of their encounters, the man told her he was 17. The grandmother called police and the accused was arrested in July 2023.

At the time of his arrest, Marinko admitted the relationship was wrong, given the age gap, Clark told court.

Court heard the man had more than 150 child sexual abuse images and videos on his phone and desktop computer.

Several victim impact statements read during the hearing detailed the lives of the man’s victims since the incident.

“She seems indifferent to the consequences of her choices. I firmly believe this behaviour is a result of the rampant abuse and grooming she endured at the hands of (the man),” said a stepfather of one of the girls.

The mother of the other victim said the incident has left their family “forever damaged.”

The teen has attempted to self harm, the statement said.

Marinko had been out of custody until Monday, when he asked the judge for his bail to be revoked so he would be taken into custody, with the expectation his sentence would send him to jail.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to continue Feb. 6.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca