Child porn sentence delayed

Photo: Darren Handschuh

A Vernon man who admitted to possessing, downloading and viewing child pornography will know how long he will spend in jail later this week.

Karl David Lawrence will serve at least the mandatory three months in jail for possessing child pornography, but his sentence could be longer.

Police began investigating Lawrence in March 2014 when a police monitoring tool picked up on his activity.

Police obtained his IP address and executed a search warrant at his home in April where they found CDs with explicit hardcore child pornography depicting men having intercourse with girls from three- to 15-years-old.

Lawrence admitted to obtaining the videos and said he was addicted to viewing child pornography. He also told police he had been doing so for the past four years and avoided being around his young nieces for fear of what he might do.

Crown Council Cristina Cabulea said Lawrence appeared remorseful for what he had done, adding Lawrence stated several times he does not know why he enjoys looking at such material.

While the law mandates a minimum three-month sentence, Cabulea asked for four to six months behind bars and three years probation with a number of strict conditions.

The sentencing of Lawrence was supposed to wrap up Wednesday, but court ran out of time and Provincial Court Judge Mayland McKimm said the matter was too serious to rush.

The defence will present it's case Friday when McKimm is expected to sentence Lawrence.