The judge agreed with the Crown prosecutor that a significant penitentiary sentence was warranted
Collecting child pornography over a five-year period has landed a Calgary man with no remorse or insight into his crime a six-year prison term.
Justice Cheryl Daniel on Monday agreed with Crown prosecutor Richelle Freiheit that a significant penitentiary sentence was warranted for Johannes Prys on charges of accessing and possessing child pornography.
Freiheit had sought a sentence of up to seven years, noting Prys’ crimes continued to cause trauma to the victims of sexual abuse.
“The perpetual circulation or distribution of the resulting images or videos on the internet produces lasting harm that cannot ever be fully eradicated,” Freiheit had submitted, an argument adopted by Daniel.
Defence counsel Ozuomba Chukwuezi had sought a conditional sentence to be served in the community of two years followed by probation.
But Daniel said a conditional sentence would not meet the ends of justice in Prys’ case.
The Calgary Court of Justice previously convicted Prys, 70, dismissing his claims his various computer devices had been hacked.
She also agreed with Freiheit that part of Prys’ conduct, communicating with underaged girls in Scotland and other parts of Europe, constituted luring on his part.
“A portion of this offender’s child pornography collection was not simply downloaded from the internet, but … was original, first-generation child pornography, provided to him by the sexually abused children themselves,” Daniel said in her written ruling.
“According to the offender’s testimony, over a period when he communicated with those young girls between the ages of 10 and 18 years who resided in Europe and Scotland, he received some of his child pornography collection directly from some of those victims.”
Daniel noted Prys’ collection contained 2,368 unique images which fell in the worst category of such illicit material and 2,755 unique videos.
“His child pornography collection depicted thousands of children; most pre-pubescent but with many of them as young as babies,” she said.
“These horrific depictions of child pornography are at the highest end of the … scale and moral depravity.”
Despite the fact his collection revictimized children who were previously sexually abused, Prys had little remorse and no insight into the damage he caused to them, she said.
“He expressed minimal remorse and no insight into his own actions, alleging there were no identified victims and he did not believe anyone was impacted by the offence,” Daniel said, quoting a presentence report.
“The only reasonable conclusion given this offender’s morally depraved child pornography collection, the source of some of it, and his lack of appreciation for his moral culpability in amassing it, is that this offender poses a threat to children.”