Grandfather guilty of child porn charges

A 68-year-old grandfather will have his name added to the national sex offender registry for the rest of his life after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.

Frank Wilkinson, of Grimsby, was convicted in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Thursday of possession of child pornography and making child pornography available.

The retired truck driver was sentenced to 10 months in jail followed by probation for three years. During his probation, he is prohibited from attending parks or schools and anywhere children under 16 may attend. He also cannot work or volunteer at locations where children under 16 may be present.

Court was told the Niagara Regional Police was contacted by the RCMP in February regarding an ongoing investigation into the online exploitation of children.

An RCMP officer told local police he was able to connect directly to Wilkinson’s computer and download eight videos that were determined to be child pornography.

The NRP executed a search warrant at the defendant’s Grimsby apartment in March and seized a large number of computer files.

“There were thousands of images and videos,” Crown attorney Michael Sokolski told Judge Peter Wilkie. As Wilkinson was arrested only a month ago, he explained, police have not yet gone through the files to determine how many images and videos meet the definition of child pornography.

“So, we don’t have exact numbers but the collection is significant,” Sokolski said.