Custodial dad gets 10 years for sexual interference, child porn (Edmonton, Canada)

Hardly a slap on the wrist for UNNAMED DAD. Notice that there was no mother in the home, and absolutely no explanation provided for her absence....

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/touch/story.html?id=8607662

‘Baby Alison’s’ father sentenced to 10 years for sexual interference and creating child porn

BY RYAN CORMIER, EDMONTON JOURNAL JULY 2, 2013 EDMONTON - The father of an Edmonton girl that international investigators strove for two years to identify after she appeared in online pornography has been sentenced to a decade in prison.

Pictures of the girl, called Baby Alison before police discovered her real identity, were first uncovered in 2010 in child pornography uncovered during an investigation in Europe. It wasn’t until May 2012 that investigators arrived at the unkempt Edmonton home where the girl lived with her father, uncle and grandmother and had been abused since she was six-months-old. Both her father and uncle were arrested.

On Tuesday, Baby Alison’s 34-year-old father was sentenced to 10 years in prison after earlier pleaded guilty to sexual interference and the creation, distribution and ownership of child pornography. He cannot be identified in order to protect the girl's identity.

“It is trite to say these are serious offences,” provincial court Judge Donna Groves said. “These offences are repugnant to all civilized people and an affront to society’s values. Given her tender age, this girl was unable to reach out for help. She was a voiceless and helpless victim.”

The father, a large man with a scruffy beard and long greying hair, sat still and slouched through his sentencing.

After the discovery of Baby Alison’s images in Europe in 2010, the chances of identifying her seemed slim. Crown prosecutor Cheryl Schlecker told court the girl was “the needle in a haystack ... a nameless child and could have been from anywhere in the world.”

The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an American organization, identified several Internet pictures and videos of the same girl they believed were produced in Canada. Ottawa investigators then took over, and by 2012, 109 pictures and 13 videos of the child had been discovered. They also identified an unknown man with a heavy build and round face in some of the images.

The pornography was traced to the Edmonton area and the northern Alberta Integrated Child Exploitation Unit assumed the lead in the investigation, though Baby Alison’s identity was still a mystery.

Investigators identified an Edmonton business pamphlet in the videos, as well as a local Capital Health logo. In some of the pornography, the child wore a white helmet used in medical procedures. That led police to the Stollery Children’s Hospital, where a staff member identified the girl as a former patient from 2007.

When officers arrived at the family home in May 2012, they noted that her father fit the description of the man in some of the images.

“This breach of trust that he inflicted on his biological daughter was the most extreme betrayal,” Schlecker told court when the father pleaded guilty. “It is one of the most extreme breaches and betrayals a father can perpetuate against his daughter.”

In some of the photos, the girl was dressed in a pink dress and blond wig, “like a doll,” Schlecker said. In one of the videos, the girl softly calls out, “Dada.”

Court heard that the father allowed his brother access to his daughter even after he walked in on an alleged sexual assault when she was only a few months old.

“He did not go to police or take steps to protect his daughter. He allowed his brother to use her as a sexual plaything. He didn’t see any harm in it.” Later, court heard, the father sexually abused the girl himself.

The girl is now with her maternal grandmother.

The father received double credit for the 13 months he’s already served in custody because he was held in isolation for 23 hours a day. He now has seven years, 10 months left to serve.