Dad gets 13 1/2 years for child porn involving own daughters (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada)

Just 13 1/2 years. That's all that UNNAMED DAD is getting for incest, sexual assault, and child porn involving his own daughters. Disgusting. Especially when you see how widely he distributed the images he produced.

http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/Surrey+gets+years+child+porn+involving+daughters/3333289/story.html

Surrey man gets 13-1/2 years for child porn involving own daughters

By Jennifer Saltman, The Province July 28, 2010

SURREY — A 36-year-old Surrey man arrested as part of an international child-porn investigation was sentenced on Wednesday to 13-and-a-half years in prison.

The man, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty in April to 11 charges — including incest, sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching, sexual interference of a person under 16, importing or distributing child pornography and making or publishing child pornography.

Surrey Provincial Court Judge Michael Hicks didn’t mince words when describing the offences.

“His crimes were those of a relentless and determined predator,” he said in his reasons for sentence.

The investigation that led to the offender’s arrest began on Jan. 22, when members of the Integrated Child Exploitation Team received information about a man in B.C. who was sharing child pornography featuring his own child.

Five men in Australia, B.C., Ontario, South Africa and the U.S. were involved in the chat group.

Hicks said the worst abuse featured the man’s youngest daughter, with whom he committed incest, sexual assault and sexual touching.

The girl had been groomed from the age of four so that she would unquestioningly perform sexual acts with her father, almost daily.

“His grooming was very successful,” Hicks said.

The girl, now five, was exploited for the pleasure of her father and the other men he communicated with, the judge said.

“It was a gross and continuing violation of the personal integrity and privacy of the child that cannot be adequately described in words,” Hicks said.

As part of the sentencing hearing, Hicks had earlier been shown a selection of videos made by the offender. He called the images “wrenching and, frankly, agonizing to watch.”

There was video and email evidence of the man’s abuse of two more of his daughters, who he interfered with and sexually touched.

The man touched and sexually assaulted four of his daughters’ friends, capturing details in photographs, videos and emails. Some incidents happened at sleepovers.

Hicks talked about one email in particular, regarding a case of sexual interference, where the offender “gleefully” described his activities.

“His actions were relentless and calculated,” Hicks said of the assaults.

Regarding the child-pornography charges, Hicks said police recovered 88 videos and almost 500 photographs from the man’s computer and a shared server. Police also seized thousands of other child-pornography images from the man’s home.

Police learned recently that an investigation in Denmark that had turned up videos of the man’s youngest daughter in the possession of a man there.

The judge reiterated that a doctor who prepared a psychological report before sentencing said the man is prone to rationalization and blaming others. He has limited guilt and tends to look at the consequences and impact of his actions as they apply to himself.

When assessing his risk, the doctor noted that the man had limited insight and empathy, and was a high risk to reoffend. The prognosis for rehabilitation is “guarded,” and Hicks said the man’s effort to turn himself around must be “enormous and single-minded” to succeed.

Crown prosecutor Paul Sandhu had asked for a 14- to 15-year federal sentence. Defence lawyer Eric Warren suggested a sentence “in the high single digits.”

Hicks said he agreed that Sandhu’s suggested sentence was fit. The sentence was for 14-and-a-half years, minus one year of credit for time spent in custody before sentencing.

The judge also imposed a number of ancillary orders.

For 20 years, the man: must be on the sex-offender registry; is prohibited from possessing firearms; cannot be in a public park, swimming pool or daycare where children under 16 may be present; cannot seek, obtain or continue employment or volunteer where he is in a position of trust for a person under 16; and cannot use a computer to communicate with anyone under 16.

Outside court, Sandhu said he wasn’t feeling happiness following the sentencing decision.

“It’s been a very long, drawn-out process,” he said.

“One can only hope that in a case like this, the decision of the court will at least be a first step with respect to achieving some closure and begin the healing process for the families. That’s really what this is all about.”

Sandhu gave credit to the police for identifying the accused and conducting a thorough investigation.

When asked if this was one of the worst cases he’s dealt with in his 16 years as a lawyer, Sandhu said, “Absolutely, without question.”

“I never want to see this again.”


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