Teen put on probation for accessing child sex abuse material on his phone

A Brandon teen received two years of supervised probation on Tuesday after police found child sexual abuse material on his phone.

The offender, 19, previously pleaded guilty to a single count of accessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The Sun cannot name the teen under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, as he was a youth at the time of the offence.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup and defence lawyer Morgan Lawrence jointly recommended in Brandon provincial court that two years of supervised probation with 50 hours of community service would be an appropriate sentence.

However, there were some discrepancies between the conditions the lawyers sought.

Lonstrup detailed the facts that brought the teen to court.

Police found 15 images of CSAM on the teen’s phone, and the teen acknowledged in a statement to police he had been accessing CSAM from roughly February 2023 to March 2024.

“Part of that includes him uploading via Snapchat a CSAM image … which is what was uncovered during the Cybertip line report that ultimately gave rise to the accused of being charged in the first place.”

Lonstrup said other than “the barest act of passive possession,” there was no indication he was “hands-on involved.”

He said there were some mitigating factors, including the small amount of material, the youth’s lack of a criminal record and his confession to police.

“It was noted he was crying during the confession, which shows genuine remorse.”

There are also signs that the teen has cognitive issues that would affect his judgment, and he was assessed as a low risk to reoffend, the Crown said.

He noted that when forensics did a digital analysis report on the teen’s phone, during which his chats were reviewed, there were several occasions when the teen would be having a conversation with someone, but when they indicated they were under 16, he stopped communicating with them.

“Can’t read too much into that, necessarily, because CSAM is itself a form of abuse, but I will say, it’s a pleasing sign to see there were some guardrails on his behaviour that were self-imposed.”

Lonstrup also pointed out some aggravating factors, including that the material included sexual activity between children and adults and that at one point, he uploaded a photo to Snapchat.

“That’s an elevated level of involvement and engagement that enables other users.”

He also cited concerns about the length of time the teen accessed the material, as it showed it wasn’t experimental or brief.

Lonstrup asked for several conditions, including that the teen not have contact directly or indirectly or in the presence of anyone 14 years old or younger except for unavoidable encounters in public spaces or under the supervision of an adult who is aware of his criminal conviction.

Lawrence argued that the teen shouldn’t have to tell a supervising adult about his conviction and said it conflicts with the nature of the protection of youth under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. She said she felt as though it was “like an act of shaming.”

Lonstrup said it was fair for the teen to have one device capable of accessing the internet, as long as it’s not password-protected, but asked for a condition that he not access social media, calling it “a catalogue for sexual offenders in the wrong hands.”

Lawrence argued that some social media platforms circulate pro-social opportunities, and the teen should be allowed to have social media, with a condition that the account is under his real name.

Lawrence also pointed out that the teen hasn’t breached any of the conditions he was put under after being charged and knows that if he does, it would be very serious, as he is now an adult.

Judge Patrick Sullivan accepted the joint recommendation and included the conditions that he have no contact with anyone 14 years old or younger, unless allowed by his probation officer in advance in writing. He said that while the supervising adult doesn’t necessarily need to know about the offence itself, they need to know why they are supervising.

Otherwise, he said supervision is meaningless.

Sullivan said there will be no exception for social media use.

Sullivan spoke directly to the teen, explaining that accessing CSAM fuels the demand and encourages others to make that material.

“The children in those images had to suffer incredible degradation for the creation of those images. There were real people involved on the other end of that, real people who were hurt.”

» sanderson@brandonsun.com