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Burglar finds child porn Casey Lessard Northern News Services Published Monday, December 12, 2011
At the man's court appearance last week, Nunavut's chief justice recommended that the confessed pedophile spend four-and-a-half years receiving treatment in a psychiatric hospital after the offender pleaded guilty Dec. 7 to sex offences involving two boys under the age of 14. It will be up to Corrections Canada to decide whether the man serves his sentence in hospital or in prison. The court date last week was to be the 49-year-old man's first appearance on a total of 18 charges including sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation and child pornography possession. The incidents happened in the south and in Nunavut starting in 2008. In exchange for his guilty plea, the offender was sentenced for six counts: four counts of sexual assault against one boy, one count of sexual assault against another boy, and one count of possessing child pornography. The man surrendered to RCMP July 27, telling them a burglar who took his computer was trying to blackmail him after seeing photos and a two-minute video on the computer. These images showed the man, a trained social worker who spent much of his career working as a child and family counsellor, engaged in sex acts with one of the two boys. The man had sexual thoughts about children for decades, defence lawyer Gary Magee told the court, but these incidents were the only times he acted on his feelings. Prosecutor Doug Garson said the offender enticed both of his victims with gifts. He invited the older boy to his apartment, where they engaged in sexual activity. He told the boy not to tell anyone. "These kinds of assaults occurred several times," Garson told the court. He said while the man stayed at the boys' mother's house, he visited the second boy's bedroom and asked him to remove his pants, after which there was sexual activity. "I am truly sorry that I wasn't able to find the courage to get help before I hurt this family," the man told the court. "I should have known better." Chief Justice Robert Kilpatrick agreed. "You, of all people, should know what this does to young people inside their identity," he said. "You were trained as a social worker. Clearly you would have known about the horrific damage that can be caused by behaviour such as this. This is not a case of a single incident in a stupor. There were many instances over many years in Nunavut and elsewhere." The sentence of four-and-a-half years takes into account four-and-a-half months served at Baffin Correctional Centre. The man will be placed on the sex offender registry for 25 years, barred from using the Internet to communicate with anyone under 16 for 30 years, and barred from employment involving the care of children for 30 years.
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