East Hants man pleads guilty to sex charges
45-year-old offender’s sentencing set for August
An East Hants man has pleaded guilty to three sex-related charges involving children.
Colin Wesley Pynn, 45, of Five Mile River went on trial April 8 in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Truro on charges of sexual interference, possessing child pornography and making child pornography.
The judge-alone trial was adjourned the next day after the Crown disclosed new evidence to rebut materials entered by the defence during cross-examination of a witness.
The hearing was supposed to resume Wednesday in front of Justice Denise Boudreau, but Pynn instead changed his pleas on all three charges.
The judge ordered Pynn to co-operate with preparation of a presentence report and scheduled his sentencing hearing for Aug. 16.
Crown attorney Rob Kennedy advised the court that he and defence lawyer Robert Jeffcock will be jointly recommending a “substantial” prison term for Pynn.
AGREED FACTS
According to an agreed statement of facts read into the record by Kennedy, Pynn’s common-law wife was reviewing photos on his cellphone in April 2020 when she discovered a picture of his penis pressed up against a child’s genitals.
The photo contained a date stamp from November 2019. The statement of facts says that was the only occurrence of sexual touching between Pynn and the child.
There’s a publication ban on any information that would identify the victim.
The woman saved the image in her itunes account and confronted Pynn later that day about what she had found on his phone. After a discussion about the photo and Pynn’s mental health, he moved out of the family home in Dutch Settlement.
Mark Harley, a member of the Halifax Regional Police digital forensic unit, extracted the photo from the woman’s laptop in early December 2020 after she reported it to police.
SEARCH WARRANT
On Dec. 16, 2020, members of the RCMP’S internet child exploitation unit executed a search warrant at Pynn’s residence on Highway 236 in Five Mile River. Officers arrested Pynn, who was alone in the home, and seized a Samsung Galaxy cellphone.
The phone was provided to Harley for forensic examination. He discovered thumbnails of 14 photos that had been deleted from the device and met the Criminal Code’s definition of child pornography.
None of the images extracted from the cellphone was of Pynn or the child depicted in the photo that had been found by his former partner.
“I accept those facts, My Lady,” Pynn told the judge.
Kennedy said the victim’s mother intends to submit an impact statement for the sentencing hearing this summer.
Pynn remains free on the conditions of a December 2020 undertaking to police.