Vernon Courthouse
(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
January 06, 2016 - 5:07 PM
VERNON - A Vernon man will be handed a mandatory minimum of three months in jail, and possibly more, after getting caught with child pornography.
Police began investigating Karl David Lawrence after an RCMP monitoring tool picked up suspected child pornography activity on his IP address in March 2014, Crown counsel Cristina Cabulea said during a sentence hearing today, Jan. 6.
A member of the B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation Unit served a law enforcement request to Telus and determined Lawrence was the owner of the account. Police executed a search warrant on April 10, 2014 at Lawrence’s Vernon home, where they seized CD’s, a computer and other items. Numerous videos were discovered that met the definition of child pornography, Cabulea said, adding girls between the ages of roughly three and 15 were depicted in various sexual acts.
After his arrest, Lawrence admitted to viewing, accessing and downloading the child pornography, and appeared remorseful, Cabulea said.
“He keeps his young nieces at a distance from him as he fears being sexually attracted to them,” Cabulea said. "He stated several times he doesn’t know why he enjoys it and knows it’s wrong but says he’s addicted.”
There is a mandatory minimum of three months jail time for possession of child pornography in Canada. Cabulea asked Provincial Court Judge Mayland McKimm to consider a jail term of four to six months, followed by three years of probation with strict conditions.
Court ran out of time and the sentence hearing was put over to Friday, Jan. 8 for the defence to argue for its sentence recommendation.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016