Westville child pornographer sentenced to four years

A 20-year-old Westville, Pictou County, man has been sentenced to four years in jail for sex and child pornography crimes against two young boys in Hants County.

“This is morally reprehensible conduct. It is vile and disgusting,” Judge Chris Manning told Brett Andrew MacBeth at his sentencing Jan. 14 in Windsor provincial court.

Court heard that MacBeth was at a campground in 2016 and came upon a sleeping boy in a camp site, who was in his underwear.

He pulled down the boy’s underwear and took a photo, of the boy’s “anal region,” Crown attorney Perry Borden told court. He said MacBeth held his own penis in his hand in the images.

He did the same thing in another campsite the following summer with another child, Borden told Manning.

Borden said he had no evidence that there was any sexual penetration of the boys, but the act of pulling down the underwear constituted a sexual assault.

Borden said members of the RCMP’s internet child exploitation unit received information that someone at MacBeth’s home had been accessing child pornography and searched the property in October 2017. They found almost 1,500 videos and photos on electronic equipment.

Investigators found the images of the boys on an SD card and were able to determine they were taken locally, and then through their investigation identified the victims.

Borden said child pornography crimes don’t end after convictions.

“Victims of child pornography spend their lives wondering when, not if, those images will resurface.”

A victim’s mother read her victim impact statement in court

“How do you process that your child has been violated? I’m not sure how, or even if, we’ll be able to recover,” she said.

She said identifying her child in an image for police “made me physically ill.”

Now, whenever she reads stories about people being charged for possession of child pornography, she wonders if any of the images found are those that MacBeth took, she said.

The woman said her son never needed a night light to sleep, but does now and sleeps with his door closed. She said when she goes in to check on him she sees fear in his eyes until he recognizes her.

MacBeth pleaded guilty last year to two counts of sexual assault and two counts of making child pornography.

He has been in jail by his own consent since his arrest and was given credit for that time, leaving him with two years and 19 days left to serve in federal prison.