A B.C. Supreme Court Justice found Jordan Richard Leask guilty Friday of intentionally downloading and viewing child pornography on a friend's computer while visiting her home two-and-a-half years ago.
Leask, 33, wiped tears from his eyes and looked back at his father after Justice John Savage reached his verdict at the Prince George provincial courthouse.
Savage found Leask downloaded 40 images after installing Limewire, a "program of choice" for accessing and sharing child pornography, and did so deliberately.
The photo file names showed they were accessed using search terms that "clearly signal the content of the files," Savage said in reading out his decision.
A "random search or a search seeking adult pornography or something more innocent would not produce this list of files," Savage said.
That the computer's screen had been turned away from where the friend had been sleeping as Leask downloaded the images "further supported" the finding that he did so deliberately, Savage added.
The incident was found to have occurred during the morning of July 16, 2010 when Leask was invited over to home to the home of Evelyne Williams, an old friend, during the early morning hours.
After a night of drinking, both were heavily intoxicated, the court heard during testimony Wednesday, and Williams went to bed.
When she woke up at about 8 a.m., Leask asked if he could use her computer to talk to his father over the internet. Williams gave him permission and went back to sleep.
When she awoke again some time later, she found Leask still on the computer and asked that he stop and he did so, but only after a couple of minutes, the court was told.
After Leask had left, Williams said she became "nosey," checked her documents file and found the images. "Disgusted," Willams said she immediately deleted the photos as well as the icon for the Limewire program.
The next day, Williams told a co-worker what happened and was advised to go to the police.
In addition to the images and the LimeWire program, a investigating officer's search also found names for two MSN Messenger and one Facebook account that Leask admitted to using.
The search found a third e-mail account for MSN Messenger was also used during the hours in question, but Savage found that was not enough to clear Leask.
Savage accepted Williams's testimony that she had been sleeping at the time and there was no evidence anyone else, besides Leask, was in her home at that time.
"The fact that another e-mail address logged into MSN Messenger does not show that another person had logged into MSN Messenger," Savage said.
Leask is scheduled to be sentenced in early June once a pre-sentence report has been completed. He faces a minimum sentence of 45 days in jail up to a maximum five-year term.
