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WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual assault and mental health concerns that may be disturbing to readers.
A Saskatchewan man who pleaded guilty to sexual interference, creating and possessing child pornography has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
According to the written decision shared by Justice G.G. Mitchell on Aug. 7, the events related to the charges happened between Aug. 1, 2018 and February 3, 2019, with the victim of the first two charges being a girl who was seven or eight years old at the time of the offences.
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The man and his victims were identified only by initials in the online decision and the location of the offence was redacted.
According to the agreed statement of facts in the decision online, a search warrant was authorized on Aug. 16, 2023 and executed on Aug. 24, 2023 to search the man’s home. The man was at home and was detained. Shortly after, he asked to go to the bathroom and, upon exiting, told officers ‘“ok guys, I did it alright. Just don’t let my family go through this.”’
Images and videos of child pornography were found on one of the man’s mobile phones and he was arrested just after 8:15 a.m. A total of four cell phones belonging to the man were seized from the home.
A young girl featured in multiple videos and photos found on the man’s devices was the daughter of a close friend of the man’s partner, according to the decision. The girl was seven years old when she was victimized. She had been left in the care of the man and his partner when the various incidents occurred.
The court documents revealed that the man would wake the girl up in the middle of the night, sometimes naked, and touch her in inappropriate ways. This happened at least six times between Aug. 1, 2018 and Feb. 3, 2019, according to the decision.
At least 26 photos and four videos were taken of the victim during that time, all found to be created by the man and meeting the definition of child pornography, the judge decided.
Digital forensic searches were conducted and various photos and videos classified as child sexual abuse and exploitation material were found on the man’s digital devices. In total, police reportedly retrieved 827 images and 227 videos from the various electronic devices belonging to the man.
Some of the pornographic content contained other victims. The man admitted to possessing the videos and images.
The Saskatchewan RCMP’s Sergeant Jordan Marks, who is a member of the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE), testified at the sentencing hearing that law enforcement became involved after being notified by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the U.S. of a video that had been uploaded to Snapchat that was linked to the man’s residence in Saskatchewan.
The man was found to have had a difficult childhood, according to evidence presented to the court, involving the man leaving his family “due to internal family dynamics resulting from his father’s alcohol consumption” when he was 15 years old. The man did not graduate from high school.
In 2017, the man began to “experience medical problems which proved difficult to diagnose” which led to his unemployment and had a “debilitating impact” on his mental health, leading to severe depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, the court documents read.
Nathanial Scipioni, Crown counsel in the case, requested a global custodial sentence of 15 years for all offences, to be reduced to 12 years to account for the totality principle, which applies when a court imposes multiple sentences involving imprisonment to ensure a cumulative sentence doesn’t exceed an offender’s culpability.
He also requested several ancillary orders, including a 20-year order of prohibition on the offender, that the offender comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act for 20 years, that he provide samples of bodily substances as may be required for forensic DNA analysis and inclusion in the national databank, prohibition from possessing any firearms, ammunition or explosive substances for a decade and that the offender forfeit any of his property used in committing the offence.
Defence lawyer, Nicolas L. Brown, requested a global custodial sentence of eight years, reduced to seven after considering the totality principle.
The man was sentenced to eight years in custody for sexual interference, three years for making child pornography and two more years for possessing child pornography. The judge ruled that the sentences will be served consecutively, but then adjusted the sentence to account for the totality principle.
Instead of a total of 13 years in prison, the man will serve 10: Seven years for sexual interference, two years for making child pornography and a year for possession of child pornography.
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