Gabriola man faces child porn charges

A 70-year-old Gabriola Island man has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography after a search of his property stemming from information out of England.

Douglas Densley Green has been released on a number of court-imposed conditions, including that he stay away from any location where children younger than 16 might reasonably be expected to attend.

More than 40 items were seized in March during a search of Green’s residence and other residences on the property. Preliminary forensic examinations have been carried out on computers and electronic media.

The investigation developed after the Kent Police Department in England obtained information in December that a Canadian resident was allegedly involved in an offence linked to children younger than 16.

B.C.’s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit was contacted and a criminal investigation was started.

After tracing a computer address, investigators believed that the suspect was on Gabriola Island, and the case was forwarded to the Gabriola Island RCMP. Gabriola officers continue to investigate and are working with Crown counsel to decide whether further charges could be filed.

“This type of crime doesn’t really have borders, in a sense, so unfortunately, a lot of this type of stuff has Internet communities or Internet groups that are from various countries, potentially,” said Cpl. Markus Muntener, Gabriola Island detachment commander.

He said this sort of case is rare for Gabriola.

“It’s a small island with a fairly small population, obviously, and small police detachment, so we don’t really deal with these types of cases very often, thankfully.”