Repeat child pornography offender Shane Pattison has been designated a long-term offender.
On Thursday morning, judge Richard Danyliuk accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence for a seven-year prison sentence and a 10-year supervision order.
“Today, words fail me when I consider your actions, when I consider the videos and images you possessed and distributed and viewed,” Danyliuk said while delivering his verbal decision. As part of the sentencing process, Danyliuk said he had to view the images.
Pattison has been convicted a total of 95 times for child pornography-related offences.
“The English language does not have appropriate words to describe how vile, how disgusting, how disturbing all of it is.”
“I can not escape those haunting images,” Danyliuk said while emotion raised in his voice.
Background
Pattison was convicted of 53 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.
Danyliuk called on CSC to update and modernize practices to deal with “offenders whose risk of violence is perhaps indirect, but that is no less dangerous or damaging as a result.”
He said child pornography is not a victimless, hands-off crime. He added CSC is “failing to keep pace with the actuality of the deleterious effects” of internet child pornography.
Conditions
With credit for time already served, Pattison will serve a remaining five years and six-and-half months.
Pattison will be added to the sex offender registry for life. He is banned from using the internet for life, unless with conditions set by the courts.
He is also banned from public parks and swimming areas, where people under the age of 16 are present, can’t be employed or volunteer in a position of trust or authority to someone under 16 and unless supervised, can’t contact any under the age of 16.
— With files from Global’s Joel Senick and Ryan Kessler