Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
May 07, 2018 - 12:48 PM
PENTICTON - A Penticton man has been sentence to three years in jail for possession and distribution of child pornography.
Jesse Aaron Prince, 35, who was found guilty of possessing, accessing and importing or distributing child pornography in December 2017, was sentenced in Penticton court today, May 7.
Prince was charged following an investigation that began when a Saskatchewan police sergeant — conducting online investigations into child porn file sharing — engaged in an online conversation with Prince in July 2010.
He was able to discern Prince’s IP address and geographic location, and handed the file over to B.C’s Integrated Child Exploitation Team and its investigation led officers to Prince’s Green Mountain Road address.
A search warrant was executed and two computers and a hard drive were seized from Prince’s bedroom. Analysis of the computers indicated they had been used to access and share child porn from Oct. 28, 2009 to Sept. 12, 2010.
Judge Kathleen Ker said the main issue at hand during Prince’s trial involved who was ultimately responsible for the material on the computers and hard drives where between 330 to 350 images and six to eight videos of young children and toddlers being molested were found.
Ker said she did not accept the evidence given by Prince during the trial, who denied the computers were his.
The judge noted a pre-sentence report that originally described Prince’s upbringing as relatively stable was challenged in a 26-page hand written letter Prince and presented to the court. The letter described his upbringing in a First Nations household as chaotic. It said he had been subjected to sexual abuse and racism in the community as a child, and as a result, left school in grade nine.
Both Prince’s parents were survivors of the residential school system.
Ker said Prince’s upbringing and subsequent adult dependence on drugs was not an excuse for his crimes, but “knowing his background assists in understanding his behaviour.”
She found it troubling Prince continued to deny responsibility, calling future rehabilitation uncertain, as was his risk to re-offend.
Prince has no related record of sexual offences, but he does have a criminal history that includes aggravated assault, possession for the purpose of trafficking, resisting arrest and nine breach convictions.
“Mr. Prince’s history follows the all too familiar and tragic arc of sexual violence at a young age, drug and alcohol abuse, limited education, decreased job opportunities and criminal activity,” Ker said.
There were no specific victims identified in this case, but she noted vulnerable children were abused during the making of the child porn and it was made more serious by the distribution the material,
She called the crimes “vile” and “reprehensible.”
She found the nature of Prince’s photographs — those of very young children and toddlers — and the organization put into the collecting the images as serious factors in the case.
Prince was given a three-year jail sentence on all charges. When time already served is taken into account, he has 280 days or 9.3 months remaining in his sentence.
He will also be subject to a three-year probationary term with a lengthy set of conditions, including restricted computer and internet use. Prince was also ordered to stay away from youth, or anyplace youth may likely congregate for a period of 10 years.
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