Blood Tribe man to be added to sex offender registry

MAN GUILTY OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OFFENCES

A Blood Tribe man sentenced last year to nearly five years in prison for child pornography offences has been ordered to add his name to Canada’s sex offender registry.

Cody Wright was ordered Friday during a brief hearing in Lethbridge provincial court to register under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act, which is a national registration system for sex offenders who have been convicted of designated sex offences and ordered by the courts to report annually to police. The Act aims to help police services prevent and investigate crimes of a sexual nature by requiring the registration of certain information relating to sex offenders.

Judge Timothy Hironaka ordered Wright to be registered with the national system “for the balance of your life,” and noted that legislation didn’t leave him any choice but to grant the Crown’s application.

Wright, who pleaded guilty last March to two counts of transmitting and making available child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography, and one count each of accessing child pornography and breaching release conditions, wasn’t ordered to register at the time of his sentencing in June to four years and nine months in a federal penitentiary.

The mandatory Act had been struck down in April by Madam Justice Andrea Moen of Edmonton’s Court of Queen’s Bench, who ruled Alberta judges and prosecutors should have discretion over who is added to the list, and it shouldn’t be automatic. She also said it was unconstitutional to keep an offender on the list permanently.

That ruling no longer gave courts the authority to impose SOIRA, but it has since been temporarily stayed by Alberta’s Court of Appeal while it deliberates a permanent ruling. The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled last year that SOIRA is constitutional, a decision that could impact how Alberta decides the issue.

In the meantime, Alberta’s Crown prosecutors are playing catch up, and have been applying to have individuals like Wright who were convicted while Moen’s ruling was in effect, register with SOIRA.

Wright was arrested and charged following a joint investigation by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit, Blood Tribe Police and Lethbridge police. Wright was arrested at a home on the Blood Reserve Nov. 8, 2017, and officers searched a Lethbridge home during which a number of electronic devices were seized.

Court was told Wright had more than 16,000 images of child pornography and nearly 900 videos. Children shown in some of the images and videos ranged in age from newborn to young teenagers.

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