Crown seeks 17 years in online child porn case

In a world where children are referred to as a number — their age — Philip Michael Chicoine always chose the youngest when paying women in the Philippines and Romania to live stream the sexual abuse of their children, purely for his own enjoyment.

He would instruct the women to perform sex acts on kids as young as 10 months. Chicoine would also direct the children to perform sex acts on each other. Most of them were between four and 12 years old.

Chicoine, 27, rarely moved in the prisoner’s box as violent conversations with overseas abusers were detailed during his sentencing hearing in Saskatoon provincial court on Monday. He pleaded guilty in April to 40 charges, including child luring, sharing child porn and arranging to commit sexual offences against children.

The offences happened between 2011 and 2017. Police discovered evidence of the live streaming during a search of Chicoine’s home after he uploaded child porn to a social media account.

Court heard Chicoine spent $23,000 on child porn, mainly from the Philippines. In chat messages read out in court, victims in the Philippines would ask him for money to pay off debts, and would send him sexual images and videos in return. At one point, he received a message saying a 14-year-old victim was threatening to commit suicide. “If she kills herself, I want to see a photo of her naked body,” Chicoine replied.

The Crown is seeking a 17-year prison term, which would be the highest child porn sentence in Saskatchewan by nine years.

Cpl. Jared Clarke, an investigator with the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit, said the abusers in Romania have been sentenced and the child victims are now safe, but the Philippines investigation continues to involve an “uphill battle” with authorities.

Clarke said this case is unique because of the financial aspect and the range of offences — the fact that Chicoine was sharing child porn, trying to lure children and talking about committing offences with other pedophiles.

Court heard he would take screen shots of the overseas livestream abuse, but also had a large collection of “hurt core” porn, depicting the torture of children. In chat conversations with other pedophiles, Chicoine would talk about hurting kids during sex acts.

Judge Vanessa Monar Enweani adjourned the case until June 29 for the continuation of sentencing. The defence has yet to make any arguments.