Wednesday marked the third day of a hearing to determine whether Shane Pattison, a man who admitted to a number of child pornography charges, should be designated a long-term offender.
Pattison was convicted of more than 50 child porn offences in 2012 and was sentenced to five years in custody, but was released under a number of conditions in September 2015.
He was deemed a low risk to re-offend when he was first convicted; therefore, he did not receive programming from Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) while in custody or when released.
After his release in 2015, he was arrested again in March 2016 for further child pornography offences. It’s believed Pattison started sharing child porn within weeks of his release.
Last June, the 28-year-old pleaded guilty to 42 charges related to roughly 4,000 child porn images and video. He also admitted to sharing 267 of the images on a social media chat app.
On Thursday morning, judge Richard Danyliuk will sentence Pattison on the child pornography charges at Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon.
The Crown and defence are putting forward a joint submission, calling for a seven-year sentence minus time served, along with Pattison’s designation as a long-term offender and a 10-year supervision order.
On Wednesday, two parole officers with CSC testified, both saying Pattison should have been assessed at a greater risk to re-offend.
Morelli said Pattison showed interest in treatment, but he was never provided the opportunity.
Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle said because Pattison’s initial intake assessment was a low risk to re-offend, he did not receive proper treatment and he, therefore, “slipped through the cracks of the system.”
Danyliuk expressed his disappointment with CSC after Pattison didn’t receive proper programming, calling it “nothing short of shameful” for a crime as serious as child pornography.
Police have launched 1,357 investigations in Canada and the United States related to the distribution of child pornography due to Pattison’s illegal activity.
— With files from Global’s Joel Senick and Ryan Kessler