Man guilty of child porn possession
Neil A. MacDonald downloaded videos, along with hundreds of images
A Donagh man who downloaded hundreds of images and more than two hours of videos of child pornography through a file-sharing service was sentenced recently to 16 months in jail.
Neil A. MacDonald, 21, appeared before Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown Feb. 5 for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography on Dec. 16.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Nathan Beck told the court that on April 14, an officer with the RCMP’s child exploitation unit was forwarded an investigation from a colleague in another part of the country.
Beck said it was part of an international investigation involving a cloud-based file sharing service called Mega.
The officer learned an IP address used to download child pornography from the service was linked to the address in Donagh where MacDonald lived with his father.
Beck said that on July 16, the police executed a search warrant, at which time MacDonald told them he had child pornography on a cellphone and a computer.
MacDonald later told police he used Mega to access child pornography.
The police seized a computer, a cellphone and several storage devices, which all held a total of 673 images of child pornography and 136 videos.
Beck said there was a total of about two hours and 15 minutes of videos considered to be child pornography.
The court heard the police categorized the images with the majority described as cartoons or real-life animations of young children engaged in sexual activity with adult males.
Around a quarter of the images showed real children.
Orr said she had set aside time to view the images, but after the Crown and defence made a joint recommendation and a pre-sentence report was prepared, she decided she didn’t need to see them.
The images were entered into evidence on a thumb drive, and Orr said it would be destroyed once the appeal period expires.
The mandatory minimum sentence for possession of child pornography is 12 months.
“The case law is clear: No amount of collection of child pornography is acceptable.
One picture is far too many,” said Orr.
“The people who are depicted in those images have been subjected to abuse in the making of the videos and in the taking of the pictures. … every time they’re viewed, it’s is another violation of the privacy of those individuals.”
Orr agreed to the joint submission and sentenced MacDonald to 16 months in jail followed by three years of probation.
Upon his release, MacDonald must put his name on the sex offender registry where it will stay for 20 years. He must also submit a sample to the national DNA registry.
MacDonald is prohibited from contacting or being around anyone under the age of 16 years of age for five years and is not allowed to use any device that connects to the internet without permission from his probation officer.
“Mr. MacDonald, you’re 21. You’ve got your future ahead of you it’s up to what you do with it,” said Orr in her final statements. “You need to set up a very long-term strategy, so we don’t see you back here again.”