Kelowna man jailed for possessing hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse

Jail for child sex abuse vids

Photo: File photo

A Kelowna man was jailed Friday after he was found with hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse.

A man was taken away from a Kelowna courtroom in handcuffs Friday morning after he previously pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of videos showing child sexual abuse.

Chadrick Romanick, 42, was handed a 10-month jail sentence Friday morning, after police raided his home in January 2023 and found 418 videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.

While the Criminal Code formerly referred to this as “child pornography,” it was recently changed to “child sexual abuse and exploitation material."

Police in Kelowna had been tipped off in August 2022 by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, after “inappropriate images” had been uploaded to an internet server in the Kelowna area.

Police investigated and found an account associated to Romanick was receiving the images, leading to the Jan. 11, 2023 raid of his home.

Romanick admitted to police that there were child sexual abuse images on his cell phone and he fully cooperated with the police investigators. Police found 418 videos and 303 images on his phone.

Voyeurism charge stayed

In addition to the charge of possessing sexual abuse material, Romanick was also charged with secretly observing/recording nudity in a private place. But as part of a plea deal, the Crown dropped the voyeurism charge and the circumstances of this allegation were not disclosed during his sentencing hearing Friday.

The Crown sought the 10-month jail sentence for Romanick, followed by two years of probation, while Romanick's defence counsel had urged Judge Clarke Burnett to impose a conditional sentence instead, which would have seen Romanick serve his sentence in the community.

Judge Burnett sided with the Crown though, ruling that a conditional sentence order would not adequately denounce Romanick's action or deter others from engaging in the same type of behaviour.

“The offence for which Mr. Romanick is being sentenced is one of the most repugnant and morally reprehensible found in Canadian law,” Justice Burnett said.

“This was an offence that required forethought and planning. Mr. Romanick had to seek out and find the offending material ... this was not an impulsive act.

“Possessing videos and images of children being sexually abused is horrific, it offends all principles of decency and mores. Those who do so must be denounced in the strongest of terms.”

Doesn't appreciate gravity of offence

Judge Burnett noted that Romanick has sought out extensive counselling since the charges were laid and he accepted that Romanick is remorseful for his actions. But he added that he's concerned that Romanick “does not fully appreciate the gravity of his offence.”

“Mr. Romanick appears to minimize (not fully acknowledge) the harm to the victims resulting from the offences,” the author of a pre-sentence report wrote after speaking to Romanick.

“He repeatedly told me that he took 'full responsibility' and saw his wife and son as 'victims' of his behaviour and that they may suffer financially if he is sent to jail, but he never once mentioned the actual victims (the children in the videos) in terms of the harms they may have experienced.”

Romanick works as an IT consultant and Judge Burnett noted he's the primary breadwinner for his family.

In addition to the 10-month sentence and two years of probation, Romanick will be listed on Canada's sex offender registry for 20 years.