Saskatchewan man cries when found not guilty of possessing child porn

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – A Saskatchewan man cried when a judge found him not guilty of child pornography charges.

Paul Skotheim, 48, was on trial for possessing, making available and accessing child pornography in provincial court in Prince Albert.

Judge Felicia Daunt ruled the Crown did not prove that Skotheim was the one using his computer at the time child pornography had been downloaded to it.

The judge also outlined that when Skotheim had taken the stand to testify, she felt that he truly seemed disgusted at the idea of child pornography when he was questioned.

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Defence lawyer Mark Brayford had argued that Skotheim’s tenant at the time may downloaded the child pornography, but the tenant was never brought in for questioning.

He also pointed out that the tenant had quickly moved out after Skotheim was arrested.

Crown prosecutor Shawn Blackman argued that the tenant may have vacated the property simply because Internet access had been cut off to that home by a court order.

Blackman brought out a chart that showed the majority of activity involving the child pornography files fell outside of the hours that Skotheim was said to be working. He also had a chart that showed the dates on many of the files went back years before that tenant had moved in.

The judge said the Crown could not prove that the files on Skotheim’s computer were downloaded before the tenant was living in the residence, and said she felt the dates on the files were meaningless.

Daunt also found that there was so much open access to Skotheim’s computer that anyone could have downloaded those files to it.