A Penticton judge has sentenced Kenneth Daniel Large, 49, to 18 months in jail and three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
According to court documents, police found “over 26,000 images and over 400 videos of various degrees of child abuse,” when they searched his home in October 2018.
In handing down his sentence last week, Judge G. Koturbash called the collection “troubling” and said “some of the images and videos are very aggressive and disturbing” and involved “exceptionally young children.”
The judge emphasized “theses are images and videos of child sexual abuse” and said that the number of pictures and videos “no doubt represents the abuse of thousands of children across the globe.”
“I recognize that Mr. Large did not take the pictures, make the videos, or disseminate them, but there is no market for any of what he was collecting without people like him,” Judge Koturbash said in his reasons for judgment.
Court heard that, according to a psychological report, Large was addicted to pornography and would spent three to four hours a day “looking at and downloading child-abuse images and adult pornography.”
In handing down his sentence, the judge acknowledged that Large was sexually abused himself as a child.
Koturbash also noted that Large was remorseful for his child pornography offense and had gone to counselling six times after his arrest until he could not longer afford the sessions.
Ultimately, due to public safety concerns, the judge rejected defence counsel’s request for a conditional sentence that would have seen Large escape jail time and likely serve his custodial sentence under some type of house arrest.
“Because of the nature of his collection, its size, cataloguing method, admission to the hours spent viewing the images and the minimal counselling undertaken, I am not satisfied that a conditional sentence will keep the community safe,” Judge Koturbash said.
“There is nothing within my power that would redress the damage done to the children in all of these images, but Mr. Larges’ sentence can and should to some degree reflect this damage. The only way to adequately acknowledge the harm is to send him to jail.”
Along with the jail term and probation order, Large will be under other conditions for a decade after he leaves jail.
The conditions include restrictions on going to places like playgrounds or daycare centers that are frequented by children, restrictions on communicating with children, restrictions on working or volunteering in any role that would put Large in a position of trust with children, and restrictions on his use of the internet.
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