Ex-church volunteer seeks to vacate sex abuse plea

Aformer church youth volunteer who admitted more than a year ago to sexually abusing boys, and making and distributing child pornography, and who had been facing a long-term offender hearing this week, now wants to vacate his guilty pleas.

Kim Ross, lawyer for Roderick Kyle Janssen, told provincial court Justice Catherine Skene on Wednesday that his client does not accept some of the agreed statements of facts presented by the Crown.

Skene, however, said that before holding a hearing on vacating the pleas, she wanted Ross and Janssen, 36, to review a transcript of the Oct. 31, 2011, court appearance in which he pleaded guilty to 18 charges related to the abuse of the boys over a five-year period, and making and distributing child pornography.

“Your application lacks specificity,” Skene told Ross. “He entered a number of guilty pleas and to derail them, I should have details and specifics. I don’t have a lot of detail what Mr. Janssen’s position is.

“I want to know why he wants to vacate his guilty pleas and which ones in particular.”

Ross said he reviewed the transcript with Janssen and that his instructions did not change from beforehand.

“Mr. Janssen said the (facts) are not accurate. He’s raising other issues whether, at the time, he was voluntarily doing this.”

Ross said he would have to discuss the issue with Rebecca Snukal, who was defence counsel at the time.

Skene adjourned the case to Thursday to hear more details, then set the hearing to vacate pleas for Friday.

If the application is unsuccessful, another date for sentencing would be set.

Nesbitt had been given approval by the Alberta Attorney General’s Department earlier this year to seek the long-term offender assessment. If declared such, Janssen would be subjected to a specific prison term plus tight supervision in the community for up to 10 years after release.

An agreed statement of facts presented in court says Janssen “used his position as a church counsellor and trusted friend to take boys on trips and bring them to his house to hang out, play video (games) and use his hot tub.”

Janssen pleaded guilty to making and distributing child pornography and sexual assault, among other charges.

Janssen made his guilty pleas while several family members of the 10 boys he is accused of photographing and filming were present.

He began taking pictures and videos of the boys, all under the age of 14, in January 2006, according to the facts. By 2009 Janssen had progressed to sexually touching six of the boys, ages six to 13.

Many of the assaults occurred in the basement bedroom of a Calgary home Janssen shared with his brother. By October 2010, Janssen had caught the attention of an FBI agent working undercover to monitor the exchange of child pornography on an Internet file-sharing network.

Janssen also distributed more than 70,000 images and videos of the sexual abuse of children while operating under the username “jonnydoitmore.”