Girls as young as 8 were ‘willing participants’ in sex, lawyer argues
The lawyer for a B.C. man who admitted to having sex with young girls while travelling overseas says his client was simply a “customer” of willing participants.
Lawyer Ian Donaldson says Kenneth Klassen is indeed guilty of the 14 counts of having sex with underage girls and one count of importing child pornography that he pled guilty to, but says his punishment shouldn't exceed his crime.
Mr. Donaldson told a judge the 59-year-old Burnaby, B.C., man engaged in a “commercial transaction” when he had sex with girls the Crown says were as young as eight in Cambodia and Columbia.
A prosecutor in the case has called for at least 12 years in prison.
Mr. Klassen was arrested in 2004 after he was caught trying to ship homemade DVDs back to Canada with images showing him having sex with prepubescent girls.
The father of three pleaded guilty to the 15 charges in May after a failed constitutional challenge to Canada's child-sex tourism law.
source
This lawyer is so grossly glossing over the massive issues surrounding sex tourism. Underage girls having sex for money does not mean that said girls are active, willing participants in the sexual "transactions".