Doctor jailed for child porn

HALIFAX — A longtime Halifax pediatrician removed his suit coat and handed it to his son before he was led away to begin serving jail time for possessing countless images of child pornography.

Dr. William Richard Vitale, 76, pleaded guilty last September to two counts of possession of sexually explicit digital images of children.

Vitale’s medical licence was suspended in February 2016 after he was arrested and was revoked last fall after he pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced Wednesday in Halifax provincial court by Judge Michael Sherar, who accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers for 5.5 months in jail on each charge, for a total of 11 months.

Vitale will be on probation for two years after he gets out of jail, with a condition prohibiting him from working or volunteering in any position that would place him in authority over anyone under the age of 18. He also cannot have contact with anyone under the age of 16 unless a parent or guardian is present.

In addition, the judge ordered Vitale to provide a DNA sample for a national databank and granted forfeiture of any devices that were found to contain child pornography, including computers, hard drives and compact disks.

Vitale, a citizen of the United States who has lived in Canada for 38 years, could have faced deportation if either of Wednesday’s sentences had been six months or longer.

The judge said reference letters filed by the defence show Vitale has served his patients well over the years.

“But that doesn’t blot out what he has done here,” Sherar said, referring to the offences. “There may be reasons why he did what he did. But regardless, he did what he did.”

The offences were committed in Halifax between January 2013 and December 2014.