Vancouver man pleads guilty to child pornography charges

A 68-year-old Vancouver man was sentenced in provincial court on Monday following a police investigation into child pornography.

John Penry Roberts pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography and will serve 14 months in prison.

Vancouver police say Roberts was first identified in an online child pornography investigation in 2017. In July 2018, multiple electronic devices were seized at a residence where Roberts had lived for more than two decades.

“This was a disturbing investigation for detectives,” Const. Tania Visintin said.

“Investigators with the VPD’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit had to sift through more than 1.9 million images and video and, as a result, identified more than 20,000 images and 4,000 videos as child pornography.”

5:55 How to keep kids safe on the internet in an online world