A Saskatoon judge has designated repeat child porn collector Shane Dale Pattison a long-term offender, meaning he will be supervised for a lengthy period of time after serving a determinate prison sentence.
On Thursday, Justice Richard Danyliuk accepted a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence, sentencing Pattison, 28 to seven years in prison followed by 10 years of supervision. With enhanced remand credit, he has five and a half years left to serve.
Pattison pleaded guilty last June to 42 new charges of possessing and distributing child pornography. He was caught downloading and sharing images in a halfway house in March 2016, six months after being released from prison on previous child porn charges.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2012 after pleading guilty to 53 charges of possessing, accessing and sharing images of children between infancy and eight years old being abused. Investigators have described his collection, which included child bondage and torture, as one of the worst they’ve ever seen.
“I cannot escape those haunting images,” Danyliuk said to Pattison, his voice unsteady after a brief pause.
“Words fail me when I consider your actions.”
Pattison fits the criteria of a long-term offender because he is an “untreated pedophile” who will likely reoffend, but could eventually be controlled in the community if he is given a chance at treatment, Danyliuk found.
The fact that he received no treatment while in prison is “incredible,” Danyliuk remarked from the bench.
Shane Dale Pattison, pictured outside Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon, on April 30, 2012
“Had Mr. Pattison received programming, or the opportunity to receive programming, and continued to offend, we would be in a much different position than we are today,” Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli said outside court.
Morelli, Danyliuk and a psychologist who testified at this week’s sentencing hearing agreed it will be up to Pattison to use programming to control his deviant sexual urges and live in society.
Court heard that Pattison wanted help, but the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) assessed him as a low risk to reoffend, which prevented him from receiving sex offender programming. Parole officers testified that his risk assessment should have been increased.
Danyliuk ruled that Pattison’s intake assessment was mis-characterized, suggesting that CSC staff be able to change those assessments during an offender’s sentence.
Part of the reason Pattison didn’t qualify for treatment is because he didn’t commit a “hands-on offence.” There are no in-custody treatment programs for internet-based sex crimes, despite a growing number of child porn offenders ending up in the federal system.
Danyliuk said CSC must realize that viewing child porn is “second-hand participation” in the abuse of a child.
“By stating that child pornography viewing is not hands-on and therefore not that big of a problem, not big enough to qualify one for treatment and programming, that speaker actually becomes part of the problem,” Danyliuk noted.
After he is released, Pattison is banned from having electronic devices for the rest of his life.