Man to be sentenced on child porn charge

A 27-year-old Niagara man who downloaded an image of a young boy engaged in explicit sexual activity with an adult male will learn his fate in November.

Nicholas Johnson pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines to a charge of possession of child pornography.

In December 2017, court was told, Niagara Regional Police was forwarded information from the RCMP regarding an image of child pornography that had been traced to an IP address in Niagara Falls.

The RCMP received the information following an investigation by the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Police executed a search warrant at a Niagara Falls apartment in January and seized a number of computer systems and storage media.

The items were forensically searched by members of the NRP child exploitation, technological crimes and cybercrime units. Police located additional images which met the definition of child pornography.

Assistant Crown attorney

Todd Morris said the defendant, who had no criminal record, admitted to police to ownership of the images and was “remorseful for his actions.”

Judge Tory Colvin ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared prior to sentencing.

Johnson is scheduled to return to court Dec. 17.

Morris told the judge the Crown will be seeking a jail term of six to eight months.