*Warning: disturbing content
As recently as May, child porn was actively downloading on, and uploading from, the desktop computer of Gerhard Henry Maynard — even at the very moment police searched his home.
The 58-year-old immediately provided his passwords to police and confessed to his behaviour, court heard during his appearance in Saskatoon provincial court, where he formally entered guilty pleas to possessing child porn and making it available to others.
Judge Marilyn Gray accepted a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence, imposing a term of 18 months in jail followed by three years of probation.
Between February and April, the RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit tracked two known child porn files to Maynard’s IP address. Officers conducted a search on May 19 and found three images and 22 videos. Further investigation revealed eight full videos and 61 partial videos that were part of the activity that initially caught police attention, Crown prosecutor Evan Thompson told court.
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Thompson said the aggravating factors were the length of time Maynard continued downloading and the severity of the images and videos, which showed older men sexually abusing children as young as eight years old.
The mitigating factors were the early guilty pleas and Maynard’s cooperation with police, Thompson said. Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle pointed out that Maynard had no prior record and has sought out counselling and psychiatric help in hopes of getting to the bottom of his issues.
As part of his probation conditions, he must attend a sex offender treatment program and cannot have any devices capable of accessing the Internet or storing data.
Maynard is also banned from parks, swimming pools and playgrounds and cannot be in a position of authority around anyone under 16 years of age for four years after his release.
bmcadam@postmedia.com
