Man sentenced on child porn charges

TRURO — An Onslow Mountain man found with 138 “troubling images” of child pornography has been sentenced to 15 months in jail.

The images included children, from toddlers to teenagers, in various sexualized poses, special prosecutor Melanie Perry said, during the sentencing in Truro provincial court on Thursday for Jon-eric Drew Hill.

Hill, 32, of Peppard Drive was arrested in May 2020 after police executed a search warrant at his residence and seized a cellphone, laptop computer, a separate USB drive and an ipod

The warrant was obtained after the Nova Scotia internet child exploitation unit received a complaint from a national child exploitation crime centre regarding online activity between April 1 and 8, 2020, that had been discovered on the social media channel Discord under the user name of Sorin the Black. The user name was then tracked to Hill's email address.

Perry relayed several disturbing and graphic excerpts of conversations between Hill and other Discord users relating to various sexual offences involving children.

Although those actions turned out to be false, the images and videos discovered on two of the four electronic items seized from Hill led to him being convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography. A third charge of making child porn was withdrawn by the Crown.

There was no evidence to suggest that Hill had ever conducted any “hands-on” sexual offences involving children and Perry said he immediately confessed to police after being taken in for questioning.

“He stated that he felt sickened by his actions and knew it was wrong,” she told the court.

Information provided during a pre-sentence report (PSR) determined that Hill has struggled with anxiety and depression since a young age and that he had alleged physical, emotional and mental abuse by one of his mother's former boyfriends when he was between 14 and 16, during which he also heard his mother being abused.

Hill stated in his PSR that he accepted responsibility for his behaviour and that was “stupid and a mistake and I want to make this right.”

Both Perry and Judge Al Bégin said one of the aggravating factors in such cases is the compounded damage that comes from the making and sharing of child porn images.

“Every time you view those images, you download those images, you are revictimizing those children and beyond that, you're feeding that illegal industry by creating a demand,” Bégin said.

Hill told the court that he “messed up,” is “ashamed” of his actions and wants to move forward with his life in the interest of one day becoming a good father to his young son, whom he said he has “never touched, never will.”

Therapy sessions have helped him understand better why things happened and what he needs to work on to straighten out his life, Hill said.

“You have a tough row to hoe, sir,” Bégin said while concluding the hearing.

Sentencing conditions include that his name is placed on the sexual offender information registry for life, that he provide a DNA sample to the national registry, that he does not use the internet for anything except job searching and that he participate in the provincial sexual offender treatment program and other counselling as recommended by his probation officer.

During his probation period, Hill is prohibited from being in the vicinity of schools, playgrounds, parks or other areas where children might be present, that he is not present with anyone under age 16 and that he only sees his son while under supervision of another adult.

Hill's jail sentence will be followed by 24 months of probation.