A woman who admitted making and sharing pornography featuring her young child and using a cat in a sex act was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail by a Provincial Court judge in Prince George on Thursday, May 15.
“It disturbs us all when we hear such acts of violence perpetrated by a mother against her child,” said Judge David Simpkin.
The woman, whose name is banned from publication in order to protect the young victim, had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to four offences between January 2021 and May 2022: making child pornography, distributing child pornography, sexual interference of a person under 16 years of age and bestiality with a cat.
The Crown had asked Simpkin for a total jail sentence of eight to 10 and a half years.
Defence sought two years, less a day, to be served in the community, including six months house arrest, plus three years probation.
The maximum jail sentence for making and distributing child pornography is 14 years. For bestiality, it is 10 years.
Simpkin said the young victim, “should have been safe and protected in the care of her mother. She was not. She was exploited by her mother for what appears to have been her mother's own sexual gratification and for the sexual gratification of (her husband.)”
Simpkin called it the “most extreme type of breach of trust.” The victim will be traumatized and, at some point, ask why her mother is no longer in her life.
The case started in March 2022 when Facebook reported five suspected images of child pornography to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children in the U.S.
The images were sent by the woman to her then-husband, who was living somewhere in the U.S.
The Facebook report led to an investigation by Prince George RCMP, which executed search warrants at the woman’s home and examined her electronic devices. RCMP also obtained access to the woman’s Facebook messages under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the U.S.
Police found numerous still and video images of the woman in sexual positions with the child, who was preschool aged at the time. There were also videos of a cat licking or eating catnip from the woman’s vagina.
The woman shared the images with her husband, engaged in lewd conversations with him and her search history included a long list of phrases, including “family rape,” “forced sex” and “raping little girl.”
Court-ordered pre-sentencing reports said the woman claimed to have been diagnosed as bipolar and suffered from gout, high blood pressure, diabetes and migraines. She said she had been the victim of sexual assault and exploitation.
She told one of the report writers that she had no recollection of creating sexualized content of her daughter nor touching her daughter in a sexual manner, because “she was drinking heavily to the point of blackout.”
She also claimed she acted in fear of her husband, who had access to all of her online accounts.
“(She) was fearful of what he would say or post online, that she could lose her TikTok and OnlyFans accounts from which she was earning money,” Simpkin said.
At a hearing in February, the woman’s lawyer, Keith Jones, told the court that she married the man over the Internet and had never met him in person.
According to a pre-sentencing report, the woman, who had no prior criminal record, was considered a moderate risk for sexual re-offence, and an even greater risk when drinking alcohol or using marijuana.
Simpkin said aggravating factors included her very high moral culpability, the amount of planning involved in the abuse and treating her child as a mere object unable to protect herself.
“The defence position invites me to find that (the woman) was in the thrall of (her husband) and subject to his direction. This latter position is not supported in materials before me.”
The woman’s Metis heritage and guilty pleas were mitigating factors. Without a trial, valuable court and police resources were saved, thus preventing the woman’s other children from being called to testify.
Simpkin explained that he crafted a sentence aimed at denouncing the woman’s conduct, deterring her from reoffending and deterring others from committing similar offences. But, he said, the task of a judge is “to not lose sight of the prospect of rehabilitation.”
Simpkin imposed several conditions for the woman upon her release.
She will be on the national sex offender registry for 20 years and cannot have control or custody of an animal for 10 years.
She is also prohibited for 10 years under the criminal code from having any contact or communication with a person under age 16, attending any public park or facility where persons under age 16 are likely to be present and must not use the Internet to access pornography or attempt to communicate with a person under 16.
