She met him online in April 2019 and during a series of increasingly intimate text messages poured out the troubles of her young teenage life: homework struggles, classroom crushes, her parents’ impending divorce.
She was a 13-year-old Winnipeg school girl. He was a 27-year-old long-haul trucker from Edmonton. The two made plans to “run away together.”
On Dec. 2, 2019, after much planning, Briant Vidrih picked up the girl at a south Winnipeg doughnut shop and drove her to his new apartment two provinces away.
“This is the type of situation that results in a child going missing forever… that’s how it happens,” Crown attorney Adam Gingera told provincial court Judge Cindy Sholdice at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Vidrih, who appeared in court via video from his home in Hinton, Alta., has pleaded guilty to one count each of child luring and abduction of a person under 16.
Gingera recommended Sholdice sentence Vidrih to five years in prison, while defence lawyer Kevin Minuk urged her to consider a two-year conditional sentence to be served in the community.
Sholdice reserved her decision and will sentence Vidrih in the fall.
Vidrih “cultivated a relationship of trust and dependence” and was grooming the girl to have sex with him, Gingera said.
“Once his behaviour was normalized, he took her from her family,” he said. “He physically isolated her, secured (an) apartment for them, and made plans to supply her with a new cellphone so she wouldn’t have ties to her old life.”
Court was told Vidrih was diagnosed with autism last year. Vidrih maintains he was not pursuing a sexual relationship with the girl, and only wanted to “help her.” Support letters provided to court cited Vidrih’s autism diagnosis as an explanation for his actions and rejected any sexual motivation.
Vidrih has had a “lifelong difficulty” connecting with other people and sought companionship online, Minuk said. Since his arrest he has suffered from worsening depression and thoughts of suicide.
Vidrih “comes to the table with a number of mental health issues that have a very significant impact on his everyday life,” Minuk said. “At the time this was all happening, he was dealing with undiagnosed autism.”
Minuk argued the absence of any sexual contact and Vidrih’s strong prospects for rehabilitation support the imposition of a non-custodial sentence.
Gingera said Vidrih’s autism diagnosis played no role in his offending.
“The Crown agrees Mr. Vidrih has been diagnosed with autism, but of course most people with autism don’t abduct kids,” he said. “There is no evidence… that diagnosis had any bearing on his desire to have a sexual relationship with (the girl). He did it because he wanted a sexual relationship with her.”
Vidrih and the girl saw each other in person two times before he abducted her, the first time in July 2019 at a Red Deer Tim Hortons restaurant, as the girl and her unsuspecting parents sat in an adjacent booth.
The parents “had no idea that the guy sitting in the booth next to them was Mr. Vidrih, who was there to be around (the girl),” Gingera said.
At a second September meeting in Winnipeg, they shared a hug.
The day Vidrih abducted her, the girl left her mother a note saying she was running away. The girl’s mother found an unknown phone number on her call history and forwarded it to Winnipeg police who called Vidrih as the two were still heading to Edmonton.
“Mr. Vidrih lied to them, said he didn’t know where she could have gone,” Gingera said. “She, of course, was sitting right next to him.”
Police called back several hours later and grew suspicious when his answers didn’t match up. Vidrih admitted the girl was with him and police rescued her from his apartment several hours later.
As the girl sat in a police cruiser, the two continued to exchange text messages, Gingera said.
“He’s telling her he loves her… and they continue to plan their future together,” he said.
Police seized the girl’s cellphone and she provided a video statement. A warrant was issued for Vidrih’s arrest the following March and he turned himself in to police.
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.
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