A 30-year-old North Vancouver man who downloaded a massive collection of "abhorrent" child pornography over file-sharing networks has been sent to jail for a year. Bradley Nicholas Wray Demarco was handed the sentence Dec. 18 in North Vancouver provincial court after pleading guilty earlier to possession of child pornography.
Judge Steven Merrick said when a person possesses child pornography, they are taking part in the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, who are "re-victimized whenever someone views the images."
Merrick said the sheer volume of images and videos, the graphic nature of the pornography and the young age of some children depicted - between two and four years old - were all factors in the sentence handed to Demarco.
Merrick said a lengthy jail sentence sends a message "that such behaviour will not be tolerated."
Demarco's huge collection of child pornography was discovered in January 2014 during
an online sting operation conducted by an officer in the RCMP's child exploitation unit.
The officer tracked the IPIP address of a person downloading videos and images of child pornography over a peer file-sharing network to Demarco's home.
Police executed a search warrant at the house on Jan. 23, 2014, and seized a computer hard drive, with 360 video files and almost 40,000 images that met the definition of child pornography, said Crown counsel Adrienne Lee.
Lee described the images and videos as "abhorrent, disturbing, repulsive" and "upsetting." They included depictions of adults having sex with children.
A psychological report put Demarco on the "low end" of a moderate risk to re-offend. n addition to the jail term, Merrick sentenced Demarco to three years probation.
I During that time, Demarco will be banned from having an account with an Internet service provider or accessing the Internet unless approved by his probation officer. He is also banned from owning or using a computer, except for employment, and cannot work or volunteer in any capacity that involves being in a position of trust with children.
Demarco must also stay away from parks, playgrounds and other places where children are likely to be present unless approved in advance and have no contact with children under 16 unless supervised, with the exception of his own son.
