Man jailed for possessing child porn
Judge gives Zane Cameron 16-month sentence, calls some images ‘horrific’
“Words just don’t come anywhere close to being able to describe what is in those images.”
Chief Judge Nancy Orr
A 44-year-old man who was caught with more than 1,800 images of child pornography, some of which were described as “horrific”, was sentenced Wednesday to 16 months in jail.
Zane Cameron appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.
In sentencing Cameron, Orr said she viewed some of the seized images and videos in which the looks on the children’s faces was often haunting.
“Many times, it’s the look of someone who is just a shell,” she said.
The RCMP arrested Cameron after an investigation that determined someone at an address in Greenvale downloaded several images of child pornography.
After a search, the police seized several devices and found 1,851 images, most of which the Crown said involved children engaged in explicit sexual acts with adults or other children.
A further 103 videos also included children engaged in explicit sexual acts with adults.
Crown attorney Nathan Beck told the court an RCMP officer involved in the investigation described the content as being in the mid to higher level of severity.
The court heard most of the victims were pre-teen children.
Before sentencing Cameron, Orr said she viewed a sampling of the images and videos earlier this week.
Viewing the images was not something that someone can ever forget or get out of their head, she said.
Orr said reading descriptions of the images isn’t sufficient to describe them.
“Words just don’t come anywhere close to being able to describe what is in those images,” she said.
The images weren’t shown in court and neither the defence nor the Crown viewed them.
In giving a limited description of the images, Orr said they weren’t children posing for pictures.
They were “horrific” pictures of children engaged in sexual activity with adults, she said.
Orr later called them “totally depraved images of harm being done to children.”
Child pornography is not a victimless crime, Orr said, adding that if no one wanted to consume it then no one would produce it.
Orr said Cameron didn’t sexually abuse any of the children involved, but every time someone views that type of picture or video it continues the harm.
Along with the jail sentence, Cameron will be on probation for three years after his release, during which time he must undergo any assessment, counselling or treatment as directed with an immediate focus on sexual deviancy.
Orr also imposed several conditions on Cameron that restrict his ability to be around children.
Cameron is also banned from possessing or using electronic devices that can access the internet unless it is for employment and his probation officer consents.
If he does need to use a device for work, Cameron must provide his probation officer with any passwords needed to access them.
He also forfeited all of the devices the police seized.
Cameron must provide a DNA sample for the national databank and his name will be on the national sex offender registry for 10 years.