A 41-year-old Burnaby man who didn't show up for sentencing after admitting to sex crimes against a girl he met through an online "furry" community when she was 12 years old has been arrested and will now stay in jail until he is sentenced.
A warrant was issued for Adam Woolacott last Friday afternoon after he failed to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court.
Burnaby RCMP confirmed he was arrested the same day.
On Tuesday, Woolacott appeared in court by video from jail and consented to remain in custody until April 29, when B.C. Provincial Court Judge Donna Senniw is scheduled to sentence him.
Woolacott, who had been out on bail since April 2023, pleaded guilty in September to sexual interference, arranging a sexual offence against a child, and making sexually explicit material available to someone under 16.
Woolacott met the victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, through a furries-oriented Facebook group in December 2019 when she was 12 and he was 35, according to agreed facts presented in court.
Furries are people who create anthropomorphized animal characters or "fursonas," with whom they identify.
Some furries wear costumes or "fursuits" or paraphernalia such as animal ears or tails, or represent themselves as anthropomorphic animals in online communities.
The girl direct-messaged Woolacott in December 2019 because she liked the furry grey and purple bunny head in his profile photo, according to the facts, and the messages quickly became sexual.
The online contact led to five in-person encounters, three at Burnaby parks, one at the North Burnaby townhouse Woolacott shared with his mother and one at the VancouFur convention in Surrey in March 2022, where the girl told organizers a man had touched her sexually in his hotel room.
Woolacott pleaded guilty after an application to exclude critical evidence, including thousands of text messages as well as security video, was dismissed.
At a hearing in January, Crown prosecutor Jacinta Lawton said Woolacott should be sentenced to between eight and nine years in prison for his crimes.
Defence lawyer Allen Goldin argued a sentence between four and five years was more appropriate.
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