City man sentenced to 18 months for child pornography
A 27-year-old Lethbridge man caught with thousands of child pornographic images is going to spend the next several months in jail.
John Philip Tulloch was sentenced Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court to 18 months behind bars, followed by three years probation. While the Crown recommended that amount of time during a hearing in August, defence was hoping for no more than 12 months in jail.
During sentencing Wednesday, Judge Paul Pharo said he considered the mitigating factors of the case, including Tulloch’s relatively young age, his guilty plea to a single count of possession of child pornography, his lack of criminal record, his apparent remorse and his voluntary participation in counselling. Pharo also noted Tulloch lost his job and suffered other consequences of his actions after his case was reported in the media.
But Pharo pointed out that Tulloch was caught with a large collection of child pornography — more than 10,000 images, including about 200 videos — and that most of the images are of children under the age of five, and many under the age of three who are being sexually assaulted by adults. Tulloch also made the images available to others through online sharing.
Tulloch collected the images up until 2016, “only stopping when he was arrested,” Pharo said.
Tulloch pleaded guilty last March on the day he was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on charges of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography. The charges of accessing and distributing were withdrawn.
Tulloch was charged in 2016 following an investigation by ICE, ALERT's Internet Child Exploitation team, into peer-topeer file-sharing networks. An officer discovered a user who was accessing child pornography files, and he traced the user to Lethbridge and obtained a warrant to search Tulloch’s home where police found the graphic images and videos of child pornography
Over a period of about eight months ICE conducted 30 searches across southern Alberta. Police seized 285 computers, mobile devices and storage drives, and uncovered thousands of child sex exploitation photos and videos.
The photos depict extreme sexual abuse, with some victims as young as six months old.
In addition to his jail sentence, Tulloch must submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank, and he will be registered with the Sex Offender Information Registry for 20 years. He is also prohibited during his period of probation from possessing pornography of any kind; from going to playgrounds, schoolyards, swimming pools and sites where children under the age of 16 are likely to be present; from working or volunteering in any capacity that requires him to have a position of trust over anyone under the age of 16; and from using the internet unless approved by his probation officer. He must also take psychological, self esteem and addictions counselling.
Another Lethbridge man was also charged in 2016. Robert Kelly Rogers, 44, pleaded not guilty in February to accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography, and was scheduled to stand trial last month in provincial court. However, he reelected to be tried in Court of Queen's Bench and, after a preliminary hearing, was ordered to stand trial. That trial is scheduled for April 30-May 2, 2018.
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