A Guelph man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to possession of a large collection of child pornography.
Alexander Wang was 24 years old when he was arrested by Guelph Police Service in November of 2018 as a result of a province-wide crack down on online child sexual abuse.
Now 25, Wang stood in a Guelph courtroom Monday to face sentencing for one count of possession of child pornography while his mother looked on from the public seating area.
Wang pleaded guilty to the charge on Nov. 6, 2019.
Evidence included samples of the of 3,974 images and 247 videos that Guelph Police said meet the definition of child pornography.
Some of those files included actual children, while others were referred to as anime.
Justice Gary Hearn said he has seen cases of child pornography far too many times and the collection found on Wang’s digital devices was ‘reasonably large.’
“This is more than curiosity,” said Hearn.
Wang’s IP address was flagged with suspicious behaviour on a peer-to-peer file sharing program.
On Nov.1, with a search warrant in hand, the Guelph Police’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit attended Wang’s address and seized a number of digital devices and eventually uncovered the child pornography files.
The fact some of the files were illustrations does not make the matter any less serious, Hearn said.
Hearn said possession is a less serious offence than distribution or creation of child pornography, but noted that those who download it are supporting those who make and distribute it.
Wang could have faced a maximum of 10 years in prison for the charge, but his defence attorney David Doney asked the court for conditional sentence, which could have included house arrest, of under one year.
Wang was said to have been surprised at the number of child pornography files in his possession, as written in the pre-sentence report. He also acknowledged he spent an ‘unhealthy amount of time’ collecting and viewing it.
Crown attorney Stephanie Turner said a prison sentence of 18 months to two years less a day would be more appropriate than a conditional sentence.
In his decision, Hearn imposed a sentence of 15 months in prison, followed by two years of probation. Wang is also to submit a sample of his DNA and will remain on a national sex offender registry for 20 years.
Hearn also strongly recommended Wang be sent to a correctional facility that could facilitate counselling.
Wang was taken into immediate custody at the conclusion of the sentencing.
