Michael Tomasik says talk of kidnapping and incest was just 'role playing'

A Sudbury man says he was role playing when he offered to pay prostitutes to help him abduct a child to have sex with.

Michael Tomasik testified in his own defence in court Thursday, where he is facing 10 charges related to child sexual crimes.

The 35-year-old detailed his encounters with prostitutes he hired and people he met in chat rooms over the last nine years.

Tomasik admitted that, at times, he did discuss kidnapping children, having sex with children and starting an "incest family," but maintained that it was always pretend.

The first incident dates back to 2007, when Tomasik said he started an incest role play with a person on an Internet messenger service who turned out to be an undercover police officer. 

Some years after that, Tomasik testified that he started hiring a Sudbury prostitute and having sex in her home. He contested her testimony that he paid her to help him kidnap a young girl, but said that one time when they were having sex they discussed incest and "how if she was to have a daughter we would all engage in sex together."

Then, in 2013, Tomasik said he paid another Sudbury prostitute to pretend to be a teenager when they had sex and that they had discussions about incest, but he said it was always part of the role play.

'I wanted to establish just how open-minded she was'

The following year, he moved on to another prostitute, who he met on Craig's List.

Defence lawyer Darren Berlinguette read some of their text message exchanges for the court.

"Do you like pedophiles?" Tomasik wrote.

"Doesn't matter to me, I guess," the prostitute responded.

"Because I am one," Tomasik wrote back.

Berlinguette asked him why he would write those things.

"I wanted to establish just how open-minded she was," Tomasik told the court. "Trying to see if she was willing to meet someone who was more open-minded than she was."

During their meetings, Tomasik said he and the woman would discuss incest while they were having sex and specifically about kidnapping a young girl they could pretend was their daughter.

Some days later, Tomasik texted her again.

"Were you able to get that girl this week?" he wrote.

"What would that be worth to you?" the woman texted back.

They then negotiated what the price for abducting a child should be and what age of girl they should look for.

"Did you ever believe she was ever going to help you get a child?" Berlinguette asked Tomasik in court.

"No, not at all," Tomasik responded.

"I knew from the role playing that it would never go further than the roleplaying."

After that prostitute went to the police, Tomasik was arrested.

But while out on bail, in the fall of 2014, he went on an Internet chat room and discussed incest with a person he believed was a woman with two daughters.​

That person turned out to be an undercover police officer.

'He wouldn't hurt a fly'

A member of Tomasik's family watching the proceedings told CBC that these were just idle fantasies and that "he wouldn't hurt a fly."

The day began with Justice Hennessy ruling that the testimony of three witnesses not directly related to the charges should be considered by the court.

One of them was an undercover police officer who discussed having sex with children with Tomasik in an online chat room in 2007. The other two are Sudbury prostitutes who testified that Tomasik made a plan with them to abduct a young girl off the streets and then have the prostitute coach her on how to have sex with Tomasik.

The defence argued that their evidence didn't show any "criminal intent" and should be excluded.

But Hennessy agreed with the Crown, saying the extra witnesses do speak to Tomasik's intent by showing how he "consistently and vigorously" discussed  this desire to have sex with children and laid a "specific plan" for how to do it.

The trial resumes on April 14, when Tomasik will return to the witness stand to be cross-examined by the crown attorney.