A university professor and former theatre director from East York who preyed on less-fortunate teens by promising them fame and fortune to model nude, is off to prison for nearly three years.
51 year old Sandy Thorburn pleaded guilty to child luring, making child pornography and inviting children to participate in prostitution.
He was sentenced Tuesday in an Orillia court and his name will be placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years.
Thorburn was working on the play “Billy Bishop Goes to War” in Collingwood, when he was arrested in Barrie nearly two years ago.
He also worked as an art and music director for the University of Toronto, McMaster and Waterloo.
Court heard he had been in counselling for his addiction to pornography prior to his arrest.
While working at Lakehead University’s campus in Orillia in 2013, he set up various Facebook accounts with alias names to advertise he was a professional photographer.
Thorburn met young girls in motel rooms with food, wine coolers and lingerie, while encouraging them to have sex with him.
Police intercepted him with a young teen in a motel parking lot and later found four other victims aged 14 to 17 in July of 2013.
A search of his Toronto home turned up hundreds of images of the young teens posing nude as well as 340 images of child pornography.