Clayton Lee Casper was initially arrested in 2022 for sharing sexual images of kids. He was released on conditions and reoffended in 2023.
Warning: Story contains references to child abuse materials
A 32-year-old Outlook man who was caught uploading and sharing sexual images of children while out of custody on previous child pornography charges has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
The federal term for Clayton Lee Casper was imposed on Wednesday in Saskatoon provincial court after Judge Brad Mitchell accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence.
Through his guilty pleas, Casper admitted to child luring and possessing and sharing images and videos of child porn. He also pleaded guilty to breaching release conditions by using the internet to access more child porn.
Court heard he was initially arrested in 2022 after a video uploaded to Google drive was flagged as child porn.
Around the same time, the FBI contacted RCMP about a Saskatchewan man trying to lure an 11-year-old girl from the U.S. into sending nude photos over the instant messaging app Discord.
The IP addresses were traced back to Casper’s home in Outlook, Crown prosecutor Andrew Clements said.
A search on Oct. 24, 2022 revealed that Casper had hidden child porn under a fake calculator application on his computer. Clements said there were 702 unique images and 33 unique videos. Most of the files were of girls between six and 12 years old; some contained real children, while others were animated images of children, he said.
Casper was released on conditions. On Aug. 28, 2023, police were alerted that an image of naked children was uploaded through Instagram by someone with the user name “Lee Casper.”
Casper was sitting at a computer in his room when RCMP checked on him nine days later, Clements told court. He said officers saw an animation of a child with an enlarged penis on the screen as he tried to unplug something.
During that search, 159 unique images and 14 unique videos of child porn were found, court heard. Casper was rearrested and held in custody.
Defence lawyer Nicole Bree said her client’s offending coincided with the death of his mother, who he considered his “best friend,” in 2022. She told court he spent much of his life in hospitals getting surgeries for a rare heart condition.
His health issues, combined with Tourette syndrome and a presumed Asperger syndrome diagnosis, led to social isolation and Casper seeking a social network on the internet instead, Bree said.
Court heard Casper’s father reported that his son connects better with children than adults “because he did not have a normal childhood.” Casper said he was told he had the mind of a 14-year-old, believed the people he communicated with online were his friends, and didn’t think he was doing anything wrong, Bree said.
Casper, who has no prior criminal record, was sentenced to 12 months for one count of possessing child porn, 18 months for child luring, six months for breaching his release condition and 18 months for a second count of possessing child porn. He received a 12-month concurrent sentence for sharing child porn.
With enhanced remand credit, he has just short of three years left to serve. For five years after his sentence ends, he will be banned from parks, playgrounds, pools, daycares or anywhere children congregate, unless in the presence of an approved adult aware of his convictions. He also cannot work or volunteer with kids, or use the internet to access social media.
Casper, who was handcuffed in the prisoner’s box, said nothing to the court before he was sentenced.
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