Judge sentences man for ‘digusting’ child porn

A Brandon judge called the child sexual abuse material found on a man’s devices “disgusting” and “abhorrent” before sentencing him to more than two years in prison on Wednesday.

“To imagine any child enduring surely what had to occur to produce those images is gut-wrenching,” Judge Patrick Sullivan said in Brandon provincial court.

”By possessing child pornography, a person drives up the demand for that material online, which in turn drives up the demand for the material to be created,” Sullivan said.

James MacDonald, 41, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, operating a motor vehicle while impaired and three counts of breaching his release order.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup read out the facts behind the guilty pleas.

Brandon Police Service received a tip that a Snapchat account with an email address connected to MacDonald contained child pornography.

The initial image found involved an infant in the range of three to six months old.

BPS found MacDonald’s address and executed a search warrant on Aug. 1, 2024.

Police analyzed several devices, which contained 79 unique images and nine unique videos of child sexual abuse material.

“It includes anal penetrative sexual activity between adults and children, as well as between individual children, and non-penetrative sexual activity between children,” Lonstrup said.

Prior to this offence, on June 30, Headingley RCMP were on patrol when officers saw a vehicle stopped in the middle of a turning lane with a licence plate registered to MacDonald.

The two men in the vehicle were “slumped over, non-responsive,” Lonstrup said. Emergency medical services were sent to the scene.

While a roadside test showed MacDonald had no alcohol in his system, there was a bong and a methamphetamine pipe in the centre console along with other paraphernalia associated with methamphetamine, Lonstrup said.

“I think the totality of circumstances are disturbing, especially the combination of drug use, driving and the way in which this vehicle was effectively stopped with unconscious passengers,” he said.

After a contested bail hearing, MacDonald was released with conditions not to possess devices, not to encrypt or use password protection and not to access pornography.

On Oct. 26, an off-duty officer told BPS they saw MacDonald in a vehicle with no front licence plate. When officers arrived, they saw two people in the vehicle, and the driver, MacDonald, was wearing sunglasses and a wig.

After a few minutes of non-compliance, MacDonald was arrested and searched.

“They found a black Samsung phone in his centre hoodie pocket. Police couldn’t access it because it was password protected,” Lonstrup said. “Pornography was located on it. The greater problem … was that this particular device now contained child sexual abuse material as well.”

The phone had 28 unique images and 15 videos containing child pornography.

The man was arrested, taken into custody and denied bail.

“It’s concerning that he had a second batch of (child pornography) on a separate device, realizing he wasn’t supposed to have a second device at all in the first place.”

The single count of possessing child sexual abuse material covers the material found on both Aug.1 and Oct. 26.

The Crown and defence put forward a joint recommendation of 700 days for possessing child pornography, 10 days for driving impaired and 20 days, concurrent to each other but consecutive to the other charges, for the breaches. The custody would be followed by two years of probation.

Defence lawyer Ryan Poirier said MacDonald only came into contact with the criminal justice system recently with one unrelated conviction and has otherwise lived a pro-social life.

He said MacDonald’s upbringing was good overall, but his family did move around a lot and has experienced some difficulties, including that his sister died of cancer in 2013.

Poirier said MacDonald moved to Brandon in 2020 and that things started to “go wrong for him” in 2023 when he started hanging out with people who were using methamphetamine.

“He says he thought he could help them, but that they ended up pulling him into the drug scene. He said he first tried meth as he was just wondering what the hype was about … but he began dabbling with this lifestyle more and more when he was about 40,” he said.

In 2024, MacDonald’s father died, and a few months later, he was fired from his job after BPS put out a media release identifying him.

MacDonald told the court that there is nothing he can say or do to change what happened, but that he understands the seriousness of his offences.

“The past year of my incarceration has been a traumatizing experience, one that I will never repeat,” MacDonald said. “Nothing hurts more to me than waking up each day with the guilt and remorse I feel for the pain I have caused, and I’m greatly sorry for everything that I’ve put everybody through.”

» sanderson@brandonsun.com