Man jailed five years for amassing, sharing collection of child porn

A massive child pornography collection he obtained over a 17-year period, some of which he shared with others, has landed a Calgary man a five-year prison term.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Earl Wilson on Tuesday dismissed suggestions Emmanuel Melo collected the illicit material because of an obsessive disorder.

Instead, Wilson found Melo kept the more than 100,000 images, videos and written material for his own sexual gratification.

The judge agreed with Crown prosecutor Aurelie Beland that a sentence of five years was warranted.

In fact, Wilson said Beland’s submission was at the low end of the appropriate range for a punishment for Melo, 58, but still fell within the suitable range.

Defence lawyer Kate Pintye initially argued for a sentence of one to three years, but later conceded a term in the three- to five-year range could be appropriate.

Wilson said the only mitigating factors were Melo’s guilty pleas to charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, and his lack of a prior criminal record.

But he said his previous good character was tainted by the length of time he took to amass his collection.

“He clearly was not a man of good character for those 17 years,” Wilson said.

The judge dismissed arguments that Melo was an impulsive collector and that was the driving force behind his criminal behaviour.

“I reject the suggestion that he simply collected child pornography because he likes to collect things.”

If that was his motivation, why collect images, videos and child pornography stories “extolling pedophilia,” Wilson said.