B.C. judge sentences man caught with 12,000 child pornography images

Caleb Janzen, a 36-year-old resident of Abbotsford, pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual abuse materials after investigators with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found he had received illicit images through a subscription-based email list in 2022. (File photo)

Warning: This story contains a description of child sexual abuse materials.

A British Columbia man who had amassed more than 12,000 images of child pornography has been sentenced to one year in jail following an investigation that spanned the Canada-United States border.

Caleb Janzen, a 36-year-old resident of Abbotsford, pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual abuse materials after investigators with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found he had received illicit images through a subscription-based email list in 2022.

Police later conducted two searches of his home in Abbotsford, extracting data from Janzen’s iPhone, which was found to contain approximately 12,578 images of child pornography, according to an agreed statement of facts in the case.

Judge Dannielle Dunn took the rare step of rejecting a joint sentencing submission provided by lawyers for Janzen and the Crown, who had recommended a two-year conditional sentence, followed by 18 months of probation.

“I acknowledge that rejecting a joint submission should be done only in rare circumstances,” Dunn wrote in her May 1 sentencing decision. “This is one of those rare cases.”

Joint submission ‘unhinged’

The judge went on to describe the scale and scope of Janzen’s illicit pornography collection, depicting “sexual violence against children believed to be under nine years old.”

Dunn noted that Janzen was previously convicted of possessing child pornography in 2019, and a recent psychological report found him “at a moderate to high risk to re-offend” with the possibility he “may escalate to a contact offence.”

Janzen was sentenced to probation for two years following his previous conviction. The current offences occurred “mere months” after his judicial supervision for the previous conviction ended, the judge noted.

The psychological assessment also determined Janzen has some cognitive deficits and supports himself with disability benefits. He described his religion as an important part of his life, which he mostly spends watching movies and playing video games, according to the judge’s summary of the assessment.

“This is not just a case where I am simply of the view that the proposed sentence is too lenient,” Dunn wrote.

“I find that a person so informed of the facts of this particular offence and this offender would find that a non-custodial sentence is so unhinged as to bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

The judge said a prison sentence in the range of two to three years would have been reasonable in the case, if not for mitigating factors, including Janzen’s stated remorse and his guilty plea.

In addition to 12 months in jail, the judge sentenced Janzen to three years of probation and ordered him to provide a DNA sample to the national offender database.