Former church volunteer pleads guilty to child porn charges

CALGARY – A former church volunteer has pled guilty to sexual assault and making child pornography.

Monday morning, Roderick Kyle Janssen pled guilty to 18 of the 30 charges.

Janssen, 35, was arrested in April in connection to an undercover investigation led by FBI in Philadelphia. He was charged with possessing, accessing, making and distributing child pornography.

Following a forensic examination of his computers, he was also charged with sexual assault and sexual interference; police found images that showed Janssen sexually assaulting several children.

Janssen has admitted to abusing 10 young boys and collecting and distributing over 70,000 images and videos of sexual abuse of children over a period of at least six years.

Janssen met most of the children through the churches he volunteered at. Janssen was a volunteer at First Assembly Church in Calgary and a student at Ambrose Christian University.

Janssen told police “I know what I did was wrong, as much as I’d like to change, I can’t help it, I can’t stop it.”

The crown is considering pursuing long-term or dangerous offender application against Janssen.