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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Soldier jailed in animal-sex case

By: Ian Hitchen

Posted: 02/26/2013 1:00 AM

BRANDON -- A CFB Shilo soldier who offered to pay a girl and a woman to have sex with him and a dog -- then sent them explicit images -- has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.

"There are two... women out there who were disturbed, upset and victimized by what you did," Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in Brandon court Monday.

Tyson Larry Shiels, 31, admitted to contacting a 17-year-old girl online in September. He offered her $2,000 to have sex with him and his dog, and sent her an explicit video of himself with the animal.

He contacted her on a website for adult users, so Shiels may not have realized the girl was a youth.

Shiels also contacted a woman on the website in September, and offered her $2,000 to have sex with him and his dog. Shiels also sent her an explicit photo.

Police raided his home on Sept. 28 and seized a pair of laptop computers, hard drives and 10 firearms.

A 26-year-old woman contacted RCMP on Oct. 2 after reading a media report about the case. She said she'd been contacted by a man via the same website, whose profile indicated he was with the Canadian military and stationed at CFB Shilo. The woman was emailed an explicit photo.

In December, Shiels pleaded guilty to two counts of trying to solicit illicit sex and two counts of circulating obscene material.

Charges of bestiality were dropped in exchange for the guilty pleas.

Defence lawyer Michael Dubois suggested Shiels' crimes may be the result of 18 months he served in Afghanistan during a 10-year career in which he served with distinction.

Shiels was deployed to Afghanistan twice, working as an artillery soldier and at command headquarters.

Dubois said that, sometime after the charges were laid, Shiels moved away from the base because he'd been forced from his vehicle, beaten and left by the side of the road.

Dubois said Shiels, who holds the position of artilleryman, remains employed with the Department of National Defence.

However, a CFB Shilo spokesman said Shiels' employment at the base is under review.

The dog no longer lives with Shiels.

-- Brandon Sun

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 26, 2013 A4