'No stone left unturned': Campbell River man sentenced for possessing child pornography

A 66-year-old Campbell River man has been sentenced to more than a year in prison, plus years of probation, after he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

The Campbell River RCMP say they were first alerted to someone viewing child pornography in the Mid-Island city by the B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation Unit in May 2021.

Mounties investigated the tip and executed a search warrant at a home in October of that year.

At the home, police seized several digital devices that contained "thousands of images and videos that met the definition of child pornography," RCMP said in a release Wednesday.

Leslie Harold Hamilton was sentenced on April 12 to 13 months in prison for possession of child pornography.

The sentence also includes two years probation, a five year sex offender prohibition, a mandatory 20 years on the sex offender registry and a DNA order.

"People need to understand that viewing and possessing child pornography is not a victimless crime," said Insp. Jeff Preston, officer in charge of Campbell River RCMP.

"In fact, it creates a market and demand for the further exploitation and abuse of children," he said.

CHILD PORN CASES RISING

Mounties in Campbell River say the community saw a 25 per cent increase in reports involving child pornography from 2021 to 2022, and the detachment expects a similar increase to continue through 2023.

The West Shore RCMP also say the number of child pornography investigations in their jurisdiction doubled between 2021 and 2022, from 19 cases to 39.

"Unfortunately, these types of investigations are becoming more common in policing," said Preston.

"It's very important for people to understand that there is no real anonymity on the internet," he said. "Everything you do carries a digital footprint, and it can and will lead back to you."

"Police in Canada receive information from online platforms and law enforcement agencies around the world regarding internet users based in Canada that are viewing, downloading, and uploading child pornography," said the inspector.

Preston says child pornography investigations are sensitive and time consuming, but are worth it to "protect those most vulnerable in our world."

He adds that most child pornography investigations involve search warrants being executed so that police can examine "all digital equipment" that a person owns that could be used to view or store images and videos.

"Effectively, no stone is left unturned as police comb through search histories and all media within the digital device," he said.