WINDSOR - A 47-year-old Windsor man has been sentenced to 15 months in jail for child pornography offences.
Justice Lloyd Dean delivered the sentence to William Stevenson in a Windsor court on Thursday morning.
Dean says possession of child porn is a “reprehensible crime” that must be dealt with “severely” even though Stevenson is a first time offender, pleaded guilty and is showing remorse for his actions.
Court heard Stevenson collected the images and videos for three to four years before he started distributing them, one year before he was arrested. He was caught sending videos to an undercover Windsor police officer, telling the officer to show the videos to his teenage daughters.
Police seized 49 photos and 15 videos of boys and girls being sexually assaulted.
Stevenson was arrested in July 2018 and pleaded guilty on June 4, 2019.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing child pornography, two counts of accessing child pornography, two counts of making available sexually explicit content to a minor, possession of child pornography and transmitting child pornography.
Dean says child porn cases fill him with “disgust, anger, outrage and sorrow” for the children who are first victimized when the images/videos are taken and revictimized “time and time again” when someone looks at them or distributes them.
Court heard when Stevenson was just looking at the images “readily available” on the internet, he thought it was a “victimless” crime, but Dean says it “went far beyond mere curiosity.”
After his 15-month jail sentence, Stevenson has three years of probation, during which he cannot access the internet unless it’s for work or education. He cannot be around any youth without someone else present and he is on the Sex Offender Registry for life.
