Ex-Fort Nelson principal loses appeal of child-porn conviction

A former Fort Nelson school principal has lost an appeal of his conviction for accessing child pornography.

In October 2010, Kelly Glenn McNiece, an employee in the northern B.C. school district, was found guilty of the offence.

The father of two became a target of an RCMP investigation after police received information from international authorities that child porn was being accessed and downloaded from a computer in his house.

Police obtained a search warrant and searched his home in May 2007, arresting him on the same day.

Two computers were seized, one of them found to contain child-porn images in the recycle bin.

Police asked the school district superintendent for McNiece’s school laptop, which was for his exclusive use. The superintendent, after getting legal advice, handed over the computer, without the police obtaining a warrant.

The school computer had more than 100 images of child pornography on temporary Internet files, which had been deleted but were retrieved by police using special software.

Prior to trial, a judged ruled that McNiece had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his use of the school laptop, which he never used at home. He was convicted of one count of accessing child porn but had a charge of possession of child porn dismissed.

In a ruling released Wednesday, B.C. Court of Appeal Chief Justice Lance Finch concluded that the police had violated McNiece’s right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. But he found that the evidence should nonetheless not be excluded and dismissed the conviction appeal.

“As an elementary school principal, the appellant held a position of public trust. Society ought to have reasonable assurance that a school principal is not viewing child pornography.”

Finch’s ruling was agreed to by Madam Justice Catherine Ryan and Madam Justice Kathryn Nielson.