Break and enter led to discovery of child porn

A break-in to a residence in a Saskatchewan village turned out to be a crime that led to the discovery of another — a sizable collection of child pornography accrued by the home’s resident over the course of a decade.

On Tuesday, the victim of the break-in, 73-year-old David MacDonald from Semans, received a 16-month jail term and three years probation, having pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

In his sentencing decision, Regina Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Timothy Keene recounted how, on June 26, 2015, a neighbour broke into MacDonald’s house and made off with some electronic devices, including cellphones and USB sticks.

“The neighbour looked at the material stored on these devices and saw what he believed to be child pornography,” Keene said. “This was reported to the police who, as a result, executed search warrants and seized these and other electronic devices that were the property of Mr. MacDonald.”

Keene said police found 4,512 images and 52 videos defined as child pornography.

Court heard the files contained everything from revealing images of children without explicit sexual activity to material considered “hard core” showing young children — including at least one toddler — being violently sexually assaulted.

One picture Keene referenced was what the judge described as a “Photoshopped” image depicting “Mr. MacDonald sitting naked on a couch holding his penis and a young girl with her mouth open.” The judge noted the girl was not actually present and that MacDonald had managed to “superimpose himself in some sort of fantasy with a young child.”

Keene referred to a pre-sentence report in which MacDonald reported having himself been sexually assaulted as a small child — an event that impacted on his ability to maintain healthy relationships, court heard.

Keene added the report writer noted MacDonald’s interest in child porn developed gradually and that he first downloaded it about 10 years ago.

“He said he was relieved to be caught because now he can get help ...,” Keene said, but then added, “Mr. MacDonald told the author of the report he did not think he was doing anything wrong because he was not touching/ hurting anyone.”

Court heard MacDonald — who had no previous criminal record — voluntarily sought treatment and counselling after he was charged.

Crown prosecutor David Zeggelaar had asked the court to impose 18 months (approaching the top of the usual range for a first-time offender) while defence lawyer William Klebeck asked for the minimum sentence of six months.

Klebeck had presented a doctor’s report on MacDonald which attributed his isolation and subsequent use of pornography and, eventually, child porn to his childhood trauma.

“When he discovered child pornography, the impact was profound, and he became increasingly enslaved to accessing it,” the doctor wrote.

In addition to the jail and probation terms — the latter which will restrict MacDonald’s access to computers and the Internet — he was placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.