Jerry Waselenkoff is charged with one count of possessing child pornography.

(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)

"I DON'T WANT PEOPLE THINKING I'M A PERVERT HERE. I'M QUITE WITHIN THE NORM."

KAMLOOPS - A Crown prosecutor accused a retired teacher of lying to a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice May 13, after interrogating him on how four disk cases with child pornography ended up underneath the floor of his McGill Road apartment.

Jerry Waselenkoff is on trial for one count of possession of child pornography after his downstairs neighbours discovered the disk wallets during home renovations in October 2012. 

Under cross examination, Waselenkoff told Frank Caputo he used his laptop to watch pornography, but accidentally clicked on child pornography a couple of times.

“I just got out in a hurry. Sometimes you get directed to other sites,” he said.

Caputo pointed to branding on some disks found within the wallets and said pictures of the accused were burned on a disk which bore the same brand.

Waselenkoff said he never used the disk drive on his laptop and didn’t recall buying the disks. He said at some point when members of the junior girl’s Russian curling team and coaches stayed with him they “stocked him up” on office supplies and regularly used his computer.

Earlier in the trial, Cpl. Barry Salt, who examined Waselenkoff’s laptop, said the deleted internet cache showed evidence of browsing child porn online. The video player on the computer showed a recent “jumplist” of video files identified by a popular child porn moniker ‘LSD’.

“Do you have any explanation of this disk, this exact same branded disk found in your floor?” Caputo asked.

“Who knows. If someone had access to my computer, how long could they write a disk? I have no idea,” Waselenkoff said.

“Sir, that’s a lie. You know those disks were all one and the same because they are all yours,” Caputo said.

“Speculating is not a lie,” Waselenkoff replied.

Caputo put it to Waselenkoff he actively searched for child pornography using other popular terms like ‘Lolita,’ and ‘12yo’ (12-year-old).

Waselenkoff denied looking up the terms specifically, but said he encountered the ‘Lolita’ term on adult porn sites. He said prior to coming to court Wednesday morning, he Googled 'Lolita' to see how common it was, but Caputo didn’t appreciate the stats provided by the accused.

“You did it to persuade us that this could have been accidental. That’s why you did that, didn’t you?” he asked.

Waselenkoff said he wanted to see how many hits the word received on a search engine. He explained an article he read which stated all men viewed pornography.

"I don’t want people thinking I’m a pervert here. I’m quite within the norm,” he said.

Caputo seized on the point, asking him if he was concerned about his reputation. He referenced the conversation Waselenkoff had with his neighbour Frans Van Der Woning who discovered the disks. The accused said he told Van Der Woning to not speak any further to police.

“When I was talking to him before, I was trying to appeal to his conscience. I was in rough shape psychologically. I was trying to appeal to him to say ‘look take it easy,’” Waselenkoff said adding if the information got out it would be detrimental to his life.

“I said that’s it for me. My time in this town is done. My reputation. Everything,” he said.

Waselenkoff said he suggested Van Der Woning destroy the disks.

"I said if I were in your place I would just bury the damn things and not even bother with it because this could turn on him,” he said.

Throughout his last two days on the stand, Waselenkoff made several remarks on Van Der Woning’s attitude and appearance - calling him a buffoon, accusatory and pernicious. In earlier testimony, he drew attention to the large cross Van Der Woning wears, saying it made him “look like a rapper."

“You made it a point to tell the court about how ridiculous Frans Van Der Woning is,” Caputo said. “You’ve mentioned things about (him) when you haven’t been asked about that."

“I’m not feeling very good towards him right now. I think he comes in with his cross and tries to introduce himself as someone who’s possibly above the fray. He’s not exactly this calm sort of Jesus-figure,” Waselenkoff said.

Caputo asked Waselenkoff if he felt Van Der Woning tried to frame him.

“I was getting worried about him blabbering,'” he replied.

Crown is expected to conclude cross-examination of the accused this afternoon. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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