A Prince George man was sentenced Thursday to 20 months in jail after investigators tracked down pornographic videos depicting children to computers in his home.
Anthony Eric Roughton, 63, who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and making child pornography available earlier this year, must also serve three years probation upon completing the time in jail.
He was also issued 20-year bans from being in the vicinity of parks, schools, pools and playgrounds as well as from jobs or volunteer work where he would be in a position of authority or trust of a person under 16 years old.
The bans also apply to being in the presence of anyone under 16 outside the supervision of a court-approved adult.
Roughton was arrested in early December 2015 after police came across a peer-to-peer file-sharing service on which videos and images were being exchanged. Police seized a computer tower from his home and Roughton later turned over a laptop and an external storage device.
Police determined Roughton uploaded 151 files depicting child pornography onto the service.
A review of 128 of them found six of them involved children under five years old, 48 of them children five to under 10 years old, 54 of them children 10 to under 15 years old and 10 of them youth 15 to 18 years old.
They also found Roughton had used a special software to erase thousands of files with names related to child pornography from his computer hard drives.
The files included images at the "most egregious end of the spectrum," the court was told, with one of the videos involving a bound child and a dog and another involving a toddler.
In a statement to police, Roughton attributed his search activities to loneliness, boredom and curiosity. He also told police that "deep down" he knew he shouldn't have been looking at the images, but maintained it's "not so serious, it's just something to look at."
The statement drew a strong rebuke from provincial court judge Dan Weatherly.
"Sir, you're dead wrong," he told Roughton. "It's serious, it's very, very serious and you and people like you have to understand that."
However, Roughton did indicate he's willing to take treatment for what was described as an "addiction," and the chances of him reoffending were rated at low to moderate.
Although it is suspected he began viewing and sharing the images much earlier, investigators determined the first of the files was uploaded in June 2015, a month before the mandatory minimum for offences involving child pornography was increased to 12 months from six.
Roughton was issued a 15 months term for possession of child pornography and a concurrent 20-month sentence for making child pornography available through the uploads, which Weatherly found took the Roughton's involvement "one step higher."
When given a chance to speak prior to sentencing, a remorseful-looking Roughton said: "I'm so deeply ashamed, I can't express it. I understand the severity of what I did and unfortunately I can't go back and change what I have already done as much as I would like to."
Roughton will also be on the national sex offender registry for the rest of his life.
