90 days in jail for child porn

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This article was published 21/11/2010 (5647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon judge has rejected a request for an intermittent sentence for a “lost soul” who was caught with child porn, opting instead to sentence the man to 90 straight days in jail.

Justice John Menzies said he was concerned about the path the offender was on.

“Mr. Harding, you’re on a very dangerous road here,” Menzies told the Tyson Gerard Harding during sentencing Thursday in Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Harding, 29, was caught for downloading seven child porn videos using a popular file-sharing program around July 20, 2007.

Police used specialized software to track a specific child porn file across the Internet to a list of files on Harding’s computer. Those files would be accessible to anyone using similar software.

In reality, there were five distinct videos as two of the seven were duplicates. They showed girls exposing themselves, a girl and boy engaged in a sex act and a girl performing a sex act on an adult man.

Menzies noted the number of child porn images was small compared to other cases in which hundreds or even thousands had been found. The material was also, relatively, less serious than in other cases.

There was also evidence Harding had an online relationship with a 15-year-old Brandon schoolgirl.

Menzies said some of the online chats were sexual and Harding and the girl discussed meeting, possibly for a sexual encounter. However, the chats weren’t illegal as the age of sexual consent at the time was 14 years.

Harding, 29, had already pleaded guilty to a count of possession of child porn when he appeared in court on Thursday. Despite his lack of a criminal record, he faced a minimum sentence of 45 days in custody with no option of serving his time under house arrest.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup argued for four to six months custody followed by two years probation. Defence lawyer Jonathan Richert asked for 45 to 90 days to be served intermittently — such sentences typically allow offenders to serve their time on weekends while maintaining employment.

Referring to a pre-sentence report, Menzies described Harding as a “lost soul.” He has few friends and isn’t involved in any positive social activities.

He attended Brandon University but was placed on academic suspension twice for poor performance and has been working as a pizza delivery man.

Harding’s jail term will be followed by two years probation.

While on probation, he’ll take sexual offender and mental health counseling. He also can’t access the Internet except for work and school purposes, care for children under 16 years old or access porn of any kind.

In addition, he’ll be placed on the national sex offender registry for 10 years.