Penticton man jailed 3 years for child porn
Nearly a decade after a multi-jurisdictional investigation turned up hundreds of images of child pornography on his computer, a Penticton man was sentenced Monday to three years in jail.
Jesse Aaron Prince, 34, was found guilty on Dec. 4, 2017, following a five-day trial by Justice Kathleen Ker and maintains his innocence despite convictions on one count of possession of child pornography and two counts of importing or distributing child pornography.
The trial heard Prince was arrested Sept. 28, 2010, at his dad’s home, where police executed a search warrant and found child porn photos and videos on a computer and hard drive in his bedroom.
The warrant came about after an undercover operation online conducted by Saskatchewan RCMP where Prince, under the online pseudonym “stonerguy,” interacted and shared pornographic material with an officer through a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
His online address was traced through publicly available software, and a forensic investigation later tied Prince’s computer to the material.
Prince’s trial was delayed for several years after he absconded while on bail.
After multiple requests from defence counsel James Pennington, Prince eventually outlined his childhood history of abuse in a 26-page, handwritten letter that was submitted as part of the sentencing hearing.
“The contents of (the letter) document a litany of abuses. This includes sexual and emotional, started when Mr. Prince was very young.
Such a history is sadly too common for many aboriginal offenders,” Ker said Monday in her reasons for decision.
“Mr. Prince’s history follows the all-too-familiar and tragic arc of sexual violence at a young age.”
Ker noted that Prince’s rehabilitation is difficult to assess due to his continued denial of the offences.
“There is no evidence Mr. Prince is a pedophile, or what level of risk of reoffending he presents as there is no risk assessment or psychological assessment in this case,” Ker said.
“To that end, because Mr. Prince continues to deny responsibility for this offence, the court is unable to make any assessment of the likelihood of rehabilitation.”
Ker’s sentence fell short of the four years recommended by the Crown, but longer than term of time served suggested by the defence.
Prince has nine months and 10 days remaining on his sentence, with enhanced credit for 535 days’ time served
Once released, Prince will be subject to a three-year probation order, conditions of which include not being in the unsupervised presence of young children or areas where people under the age of 16 are known to congregate.
Prince, whose name will remain on the national sex offender registry for life, will only be allowed to access the internet for educational or work purposes, and will be subject to random inspections by probation officers.