Saskatoon man who pleaded guilty to making child porn awaits sentencing

A Saskatoon man who secretly filmed nude boys he met through a volunteer group not only victimized some of the most vulnerable children in society, but also cast suspicion on an otherwise admirable organization, the Crown stated during Thursday’s sentencing hearing for Justin Gerard Gryba.

Gryba, 27, pleaded guilty earlier this month to two counts of making child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography. 

The charges stem from videos and images police found on two heavily-encrypted hard drives seized in 2012. It took officers two years to unlock what’s been described as the “military grade encryption.”

As a result of what police could uncover during the initial investigation, Gryba received a two-year sentence in 2013 for possessing child pornography and making child pornography available to other users. But court heard he had much more pornography than officers could initially access, resulting in the most recent charges being laid in September 2014.

Once police were able to unlock the devices, they found 12 videos taken by Gryba of two boys changing in swimming pool locker rooms and another boy using the washroom at Gryba’s home. According to Det. Sgt. Darren Parisien with the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit, most of the videos show Gryba holding a small recording device and focusing on the boys’ genitals.

Along with the videos Gryba made in Saskatoon, ICE Unit investigators also discovered about 10,000 new child pornography videos and images on the encrypted devices. Parisien said the collection was significantly larger and more graphic than the content Gryba was previously sentenced for, showing the oral and anal abuse of young boys between one and eight years old.

There were also thousands of victims, which differed from Gryba’s first court case where many images were of the same child, Parisien said.

Crown prosecutor Michael Segu said Gryba showed a lack of remorse when he forced police to “scratch and claw” for information about the names of the Saskatoon victims and the locations where Gryba’s videos were taken. Segu pointed out that before the new charges were laid, Gryba told his doctor that he questioned if he was capable of making child pornography. That was a lie, Segu told the court, because Gryba had already made the videos.

The offender put his victims’ families through “emotional torture” by not disclosing what was on the locked hard drives and therefore dragging out the court process, Segu said.

“If Justin was really sorry, why did he hide the evidence?” one victim’s mother wrote in a statement read by the Crown.

The Crown is seeking a five-year prison sentence, which would match one of the highest child pornography sentences ever handed down in Saskatchewan.

Defence lawyer Morris Bodnar argued for Gryba to receive time-served for the 19 months he has already spent in custody. Both Segu and Bodnar agreed Gryba should be given 1.5 times remand credit, which would equal just over two years.

Bodnar said his client, who participated in sex offender programs after his first sentence, “has an illness” and needs to continue focusing on his rehabilitation.

Gryba has taken all the steps he can to try and change his behavior, Bodnar said. Court heard how Gryba’s instructors said the offender put effort into his assignments, initiated discussions and provided feedback to other patients.

Defence lawyer Mike Buchinski said the videos Gryba made would fall on the low end of child pornography, and there’s no evidence he shared the videos or profited from them.

He is also a low risk to reoffend and understands the harm his actions have caused, Buchinski told the court. Gryba told Chief Justice Marty Popescul he now realizes watching child pornography is like being in the room during an assault and doing nothing to stop it.

“I can’t even imagine the total hurt that I am responsible for,” Gryba said, adding he hopes his victims can heal, even if his words mean nothing to them.

But Segu said Gryba, whose resume is full of volunteer work with children, showed a breach of trust that must elevate him beyond the average offender.

“My son really needed a male role-model,” a mother of one of Gryba’s victims wrote in her victim impact statement. “We thought we had found that in Justin.”

Chief Justice Popescul will sentence Gryba on April 15.