A 36-year-old Edmonton man has been sentenced to a year in jail and two years of probation for distributing child pornography after hundreds of pictures and videos downloaded through file-sharing software were discovered on his laptop.
Steven Brian Davis was sentenced Wednesday in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench. Justice John Little agreed to a joint sentencing submission from defence lawyer Will van Engen and Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger.
Davis, who sat beside his lawyer during Wednesday’s hearing, pleaded guilty Sept. 6 to one count of distributing child pornography.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Davis used computer software known as LimeZilla to acquire images and videos of recorded sexual exploitation. LimeZilla is a peer-to-peer program that allows people using the software to share files.
“The risk of sharing those illegal files was not merely a technical possibility,” the statement of facts says.
“The offence was discovered because police conducted an online investigation, looking for people in Alberta who were using peer-to-peer software to share child pornography.
“From Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, 2017 the accused’s computer shared with the police computer 33 images and four videos that all depict children who were either made to pose naked in a sexual manner or made to engage in sexual acts.”
In the agreed statement of facts, the Crown and defence said Davis did not intend to share the images.
‘The accused did not, with specific intent, make efforts to share illegal images of children, but he was willfully blind to the likelihood that sharing was occurring,” the document states.
Police executed a search warrant at Davis’ home last March where they seized a laptop and thumb drive with 856 images and 27 videos of child pornography, court heard. Most were deleted, but police managed to recover them.
Conditions for Davis include providing a DNA sample and being placed on the sex offender registry for 20 years. His probation will include a number of conditions, including no contact with anyone under the age of 16.