Prison term for second child porn, personation convictions

A Brandon man was sentenced to more than two and a half years behind bars on Thursday for possessing child pornography and assuming the identity of a woman in an attempt to “trade nudes” with people.

It was his second conviction in 10 years for both offences.

Joshua Pisio, 29, pleaded guilty at a previous court appearance to possessing child pornography, personation and failing to comply with a court order to not access the internet for 10 years.

In 2021, Yahoo reported the use of a “very exploitive” cartoon GIF — a short looping video — which Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup described as deeply sexual and involving children.

Police traced it back to Pisio’s residence and got a search warrant to seize and examine his devices. Pisio admitted to police that he was in possession of more child sexual abuse material.

“The digital analysis of the devices, however, located something more,” Lonstrup said.

He said Pisio acquired photos of a Brandon woman and used them to create a fake Instagram account pretending to be her.

“He engaged in chats with a number of people using that false identity, and in two of those chats that we know of, asked specifically to trade nude photographs,” he said, adding that the ploy wasn’t successful.

Police found photos of a woman who Lonstrup said “could be” the woman he was impersonating, posing topless with only underwear on.

Pisio admitted that he went to high school with the woman, but that she was 18 in the photos, Lonstrup said.

Through the digital analysis, he said, police also found 26 unique images and 14 unique videos of child sexual abuse material, which were described as mostly anime — a style of Japanese animation.

“Some of them were actual photographic selfies of real girls underage, and there were some cases of young children in the age ranges of four to 10 performing sexual acts with adult males,” the Crown said.

He said Pisio’s guilty plea was a mitigating factor, but if the matter did go to trial, the Crown had a strong case with police evidence.

Lonstrup said there were multiple aggravating factors, with the most pressing one being Pisio’s prior conviction for possessing child pornography and personation.

In 2016, Pisio assumed the identity of a woman and sent topless photos of her at the age of 14 or 15 to a 21-year-old woman through the messaging app called Kik, Lonstrup said.

He said the woman who received the images knew she was being “catfished” and made a complaint to police.

In that previous case, police found 96 unique sexual images of children on his devices, and he was sentenced to six months for each charge, which he served concurrently, Lonstrup said.

“By this new offending you learn a lot. Six months of real jail did not deter him,” he said. “He successfully completed sexual offender programming and counselling in 2018. Very regrettably, we can say it did not have the desired effects.”

He said it’s aggravating that the reoffending occurred while Pisio was on an order not to access the internet and this case proves why that order was important.

Lonstrup said it’s also aggravating that Pisio targeted more than one person and that at least some of the material ranked on the higher end of the Basov scale, which refers to a court case which outlined the different levels of severity of child pornography.

Lonstrup suggested a sentence of 18 months for possessing child pornography, eight months for personation and another eight months for failing to comply with court orders, all to be served consecutively.

He said the sentence needed to be a step up from Pisio’s previous sentence in order to promote specific deterrence.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Richert agreed with a sentence of 18 months for possessing child pornography but asked the court to consider four months each for the other two charges.

He said for the personation charge, the court needs to sentence Pisio for the harm done and not the potential harm.

“You have Mr. Pisio impersonating somebody, contacting others in an attempt to exchange nude photographs, but as my friend pointed out, ultimately wasn’t successful,” he said.

Richert said at the time of Pisio’s offending, he was going through some personal issues involving a breakup and that he struggles with intimacy.

“I think I would generally describe him as somebody who is somewhat socially isolated,” he said.

When Pisio was given a chance to speak, he said he was open to getting the help he knows he needs.

“I’m the kind of person that would much rather help people instead of hurt them,” Pisio said.

Justice Elliot Leven said specific deterrence is appropriate in this case because of the repeated nature of the offences and went along with the lawyers’ recommendation of 18 months for the possession of child pornography.

Leven sentenced Pisio to seven months each for the personation and failing to comply with court orders charges.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com