A Prince George man was sentenced Wednesday to three years in federal prison for making and distributing child pornography and luring a young teenage girl over the internet.
James Sidney Bell, 36, was arrested on June 29, 2017 after RCMP acted on information provided by police in Saskatoon and Oklahoma that he had been sharing and images through a messenger application.
From his home, RCMP seized a laptop, two cellphones and storage devices and on one of the phones, police found 110 images and one video depicting children in a full range of sexually-explicit situations.
RCMP also found evidence of pornographic stories involving children and messages along the same lines exchanged through the application - including conversations with a Filipino girl Bell later admitted to believing was 14 years old.
Bell's collection was not large as some referred to by Crown counsel during submissions on sentencing but was not small either, provincial court judge Michael Brecknell said in delivering his reasons for sentencing.
"It also included very young children," Brecknell continued. "He actively distributed his collection, and his written child pornography, which adds fuel to the child pornography industry and normalized and encouraged the sexual abuse of children by the same."
Brecknell further noted that in his conversations Bell talked about "creating 'incest families' and sexually abusing children together."
Bell was "not a reluctant and passive participant in this online community. He helped grow and strengthen the community, sharing both his depraved collection and thoughts in an effort to do the same."
Much of the activity occurred at the same time he was engaging in sexual conversations with the girl, eventually convincing her to send images of her breasts in a bra.
Brecknell endorsed Crown's position on sentencing.
Defence counsel had argued for two years in jail followed by three years probation arguing it would be an effectively longer sentence and that Bell could get the help he needs to address the concerns raised in the forensic report while out in the community. At the time he was committing the crimes, Bell was involved in an acrimonious divorce, it was also noted.
It was acknowledged that Bell pleaded guilty to the counts, thus avoiding a lengthy trial and sparing the girl from having to testify, and that he had no previous criminal record. But in interviews for a pre-sentence report and a forensic report, Bell also showed "limited insight and only guarded acceptance" of the gravity of the offences.
It was also noted that Bell appeared in court during defence counsel's submissions wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the words "In my defence I was left unsupervised," which Brecknell found had to be considered in determining his acceptance of responsibility for the actions.
The graphic nature of the material combined with the length of time Bell participated in the exchanges led Brecknell to conclude a penitentiary sentence is appropriate.
