CHILD PORN SENTENCE
Popular playwright gets six months after guilty plea
An Edmonton playwright has been handed a jail sentence after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.
David Belke was sentenced to six months behind bars in an Edmonton courtroom Friday, according to court records.
The 57-year-old playwright, performer and former substitute teacher pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography Oct. 26. He was arrested March 17 after turning himself in to police.
Belke came under investigation by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams’ Internet Child Exploitation unit in February 2017 after taking his computer to a local Staples store for repairs, according to an agreed statement of facts.
Employees discovered images of nude children on the computer, and police were contacted.
Investigators eventually found about a dozen images on the computer that met the Criminal Code’s definition of child pornography. Hundreds of other images were categorized as “possible child pornography” or of “investigative interest.”
Court heard in October that the majority of the images were of nude females, many of whom appeared to be under 18. The images appeared to have come from naturist or nudist websites.
Belke told investigators he did not use the images for sexual gratification, but is attracted to the innocence of young people and finds them beautiful.
Police also discovered several documents containing written material describing sex acts between adults and children ages 12 to 16, but there is no evidence of who authored them, court heard.
Belke turned himself in after re- ceiving a phone call from police. He resigned a position as resident playwright with a local theatre group in February. According to his website, he has produced more than 20 plays for the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival.
A psychologist said Belke is a low risk to reoffend, and that there was no evidence of him sharing or distributing the images.
Belke’s name will be added to the national sex offender registry as part of the sentence.
After his arrest, an ALERT spokesman said Belke was a substitute teacher with Edmonton Public Schools until recently.