Crown seeks one-year sentence for man caught with 7,000 child porn images

Photo: Nicholas Johansen

Terry Krock leaves the Kelowna courthouse in November 2019 following his guilty plea.

Warning: This story contains content that may be disturbing to some readers.

Sentencing submissions continued in Kelowna Wednesday in the case of Terry Krock, a man convicted of possessing child pornography.

The 54-year-old pleaded guilty in November 2019 to possessing child pornography, a charge that spanned about seven years between 2010 and 2017. 

It was revealed on Wednesday that Krock had in his possession between 7,000 and 12,000 pornographic images and videos of children, ranging in age from one years old to 17 years old. 

Crown counsel Dan Blumenkrans told the court the nature of those materials "traverse the spectrum of depravity," featuring all types of depictions, including those which show high degrees of violence towards very young children.

Blumenkrans is requesting Justice Alison Beames impose a jail sentence of 12 months on Krock, as well as a three year probation order and other orders to minimize his contact with children.

Krock's lack of insight into his offences is "concerning," says Blumenkrans, who referred to comments Krock had previously made, such as comparing going between adult and child pornography to "switching channels."

He also voiced issue with the idea of Krock being a fantasy-motivated offender with no intention of committing an actual contact offence against a child.

"While it may explain some of the offending, it doesn't take away from its seriousness," says Blumenkrans.

The concept of fantasy-motivated offending was explained on Tuesday by clinical psychologist Dr. Anton Schweighofer, who appeared via video conference to further detail his psychological risk assessment of Krock.

Fantasy-motivated offenders are individuals for whom the viewing of child sexual exploitation videos is part of fulfilling a "fantasy pursuit," rather than the utilization of child porn for the purposes of facilitating an actual contact offence against a child. 

However, Blumenkrans says Krock demonstrates a "significant thoughtfulness and high level of engagement with the content," particularly as detailed in various conversations with others online about child porn.

The "extremely detailed" content of some of the conversations documented as exhibits, which Blumenkrans says pertain to real life contact and go beyond the realm of mere fantasy, involve reference to the "lack of availability" of BDSM videos involving children.

Another conversation involving Krock and a woman included a discussion about her unborn, or very newly born daughter, and "adjusting the type of acts that would suit her size and readiness." 

Krock also referenced his niece in the documented online conversations, and his own understanding that his sister "wouldn't be sympathetic" to her daughter's involvement in what he had detailed.

"What these conversations exhibit is an extremely thoughtful person, an extremely articulate person," says Blumenkrans.

"Mr Krock is acutely aware of the wide breadth in which children can be abused - the way that they are abused in fact in child pornography. That’s reflected in the reference to different types of sexual activities that they can and cannot be engaged in, and I say cannot, because it’s acknowledged in purely physiological limitations, and that’s, in my submission, a chilling element of this."

Defence counsel Brian Fitzpatrick started his submissions Wednesday by acknowledging the case was horrific, but calling for sentencing to be based on individual circumstances of Krock's life and history.

"Every case that comes before the court involving child pornography, we're dealing with a horrific case. That is a given. In every case we're dealing with horrific circumstances. We're dealing with the exploitation of children. Whether we're dealing with one photo or 322,000, we're dealing with a horrific case and circumstances.

"The question though, is given that sentencing is an individualized process, what is the appropriate and fit sentence for that particular offender at that particular point in time based on those unique circumstances?"

Fitzpatrick told the court that Krock had co-operated with the investigation in a forthright manner, including telling officers who executed a search warrant that they would be certain to find child pornography in his possession.

He submitted to the court that Krock "does not pose a risk" to the community, to which Justice Beames responded with the assertion that it isn't reasonable to say he poses no risk, but that it may be a low risk. 

Fitzpatrick is requesting a conditional sentence order of 18 to 24 months in the community, in addition to the three-year probation period which defence and Crown submitted as a joint, agreed-upon request. 

He cited exceptional circumstances that suggested Krock should not serve a jail term, namely his neuro-cognitive disorder associated with a motor vehicle accident and his need to maintain stable employment. 

Fitzpatrick's request involves house arrest for Krock, with the exception of travel to and from his place of work.

"If he loses his job and he loses his trailer, he'll come back into society and be worse off ... it would be counter-productive for him to be sentenced and put into an environment (jail) where he's going to be exposed to people who are much worse than him."

Justice Beames chimed in at this point to remind Fitzpatrick it's "not a one-sided equation," and suggesting he was bordering on "ignoring the harm done" to children through child pornography by comparing it to offenders involved in the distribution of illicit drugs. 

"Deaths result - whether they're suicides, whether they're, you know, the emotional harm that's done. Drugs are bad, there's no question about it. Killing people by putting fentanyl in something that you're selling as something else ... is clearly a horrific crime, but it's of a different nature than exploitation of - including babies - of the nature that we see in child pornography cases."

Fitzpatrick is expected to wrap up sentencing submissions for defence on Thursday morning. Krock will then make a short statement before Justice Beames makes her final decision. 

Krock remains out of custody on bail.