When he was a teenager, our client began accessing, downloading, and eventually sharing child pornography images and videos. Tips from another country led a Canadian police force to begin monitoring an online chatroom that our client had been using. Investigators identified our client’s Internet Protocol address when he was seventeen years old, but they did not finish their investigation until after he turned eighteen. Our client’s parents’ house was searched, his devices were seized, and he was charged with child pornography offences as an adult.
The prosecution originally wanted our client to serve over two years in jail as an adult, which would also result in an adult criminal record and registration with the Sex Offender Registry. After three years of negotiations, the prosecutors agreed to drop the adult charges against our client and re-charge him under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for the offences he committed before he turned eighteen.
RESULT: Our client pleaded guilty as a young offender and sentenced to only twelve months in custody, meaning that he will receive a temporary youth record, he will not be subject to the Sex Offender Registry, and he benefits from a publication ban on his identity. His adult charges were withdrawn.