‘Targetting children wherever he can find them’

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This article was published 04/08/2023 (1085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge has sentenced a sex predator to 15 years in prison, saying no child appeared safe from his criminal attention.

“It appears he is targetting children wherever he can find them — in the front of his house, in a neighbour’s backyard, bus shelters, campgrounds, near schools, ” King’s Bench Justice Gerald Chartier said Wednesday.

“I accept his risk for recidivism is high, based on the lengthy and substantial involvement in this behaviour,” Chartier said.

“There seems to be an insatiable need to record children wherever he sees them. We should be very concerned about his risk to reoffend.”–Crown attorney Katie Dojack

The 29-year-old Winnipeg man pleaded guilty to two counts of making child pornography involving children both in Winnipeg and the U.S., one count each of possessing and distributing child pornography, and one count each of child luring and voyeurism for offences that were committed between 2016 and 2021.

Police arrested the man in January 2021 after an online watchdog organization for sexually exploited children reported that child sex abuse imagery and videos had been downloaded from an IP address that was later traced to a Winnipeg home.

The man, who was living with his parents at the time of his arrest, cannot be identified because one of his victims is his sister.

Police seized eight cellphones from the man. Four of them stored more than 5,500 images and 2,400 videos that depicted the sexual abuse of children, primarily girls five years of age or younger, and another 13,000 images and 2,400 videos police categorized as being of “investigative interest.”

Court was told the images included an “extensive library” of screenshots and videos recorded during conversations with young children he had encouraged to engage in sex acts, including a nine-year-old Kentucky girl to whom he sent adult pornography.

The man discussed the abuse of children with other online predators in chats. Charges against the man do not include allegations he physically abused children.

Defence lawyer Jeremey Kostiuk said the chats were “highly distressing,” but evidence of bravado, not hands-on abuse.

“It became, in this case, a vicious circle of deviant conduct.”–Justice Gerald Chartier

“People who will never engage in live-action offending will inevitably boast of having done and wanting to do all kinds of distressing things,” Kostiuk told court at a sentencing hearing last spring.

Videos seized from police include 100 “surreptitious” recordings of children on the street, at stores, parks, community centres and campgrounds. The man recorded himself masturbating in a bus shelter before he followed a girl as she walked to school. He recorded other videos from his bedroom window or the roof of his house.

The voyeur videos “are indicative of a complete lack of inhibition and impulse control,” Crown attorney Katie Dojack told court last spring. “There seems to be an insatiable need to record children wherever he sees them. We should be very concerned about his risk to reoffend.”

The children were recorded “being just regular kids by this adult pervert,” their father said in a victim impact statement provided to court. “This act sickens me…. He should never be allowed around any youth for the rest of his life.”

Court was told the man co-operated with police following his arrest and readily admitted he was attracted to young girls. The man apologized to his victims at a sentencing hearing last spring.

“I wish I could take everything back,” he said. “I want to get help. I want to change.”

“I want to get help. I want to change.”–Convicted man

Kostiuk argued the man’s continued exposure to child pornography “normalized” the crime and undermined his sense of right and wrong.

“At the same time, it is a choice that the accused has made,” Chartier said Wednesday. “It became, in this case, a vicious circle of deviant conduct.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca