Lawyers say repeat child porn offender could be reintegrated
A Queen’s Bench judge says his only concern over designating repeat child porn offender Shane Dale Pattison a long-term offender — allowing his eventual release into the community — is that he will be denied any treatment opportunities for a second time.
Justice Richard Danyliuk is expected to decide today if Pattison, 28, should be designated a longterm offender who is supervised for 10 years following a seven-year prison sentence.
The Crown and defence jointly submitted the sentence after Pattison was caught downloading and sharing child pornography in a halfway house almost immediately after he was released from prison on previous child porn charges. He’s pleaded guilty to 42 new charges of possessing and distributing child porn.
The lawyers believe that although Pattison poses a significant risk to reoffend, he hasn’t had a chance to prove he is manageable in the community because he was never given the opportunity for treatment. A long-term offender designation requires a likelihood of reintegration achieved through lengthy supervision.
A Saskatoon courtroom heard this week that an intake parole officer deemed Pattison a low risk to reoffend — a designation that followed him throughout his federal sentence and ultimately prevented him from taking sex offender programming. Parole officers testified that Pattison wanted help and his risk assessment should have been increased, Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli said in her submissions.
She said Pattison has contributed to the dissemination of thousands of child porn images, mostly of children between infancy and eight years old, and befriended the abusers who provided him with some of those images.
Court heard part of the reason Pattison didn’t qualify for treatment is that he didn’t commit a “hands-on offence.” There are no in-custody treatment programs for internet-based sex crimes, despite a growing number of child porn offenders ending up in the federal system.