A 44-year-old man has been jailed for 18 months after he was caught distributing hundreds of graphic images and videos of child pornography.
Clifton Bernard Siemens was tracked down last year to his Blundell Gardens home at 8760 Blundell Rd. by an international police investigation that started in London, England.
Officers confiscated his home computer and on two hard drives they uncovered thousands of child porn images.
Siemens claimed, however, the images were not for personal arousal, but were instead used as currency to trade online with others for videos of teenage boys.
Appearing for sentencing at Richmond Provincial Court this week, Siemens - who pleaded guilty to importing or distributing child pornography - broke down and cried as the Crown narrated the nature of the images found on his computer.
Before sentencing, Crown counsel Selena Chu read through just a few of the folder and image titles of the child pornography and described the images to the courtroom.
As Chu described the images, Siemens cried and whispered, "Why?" under his breath.
Defense counsel Gary Adams objected to the descriptions being read aloud, stating it would take too much time to do so.
Judge Paul Perry dismissed the objection and Chu went on as Siemens continued to shed tears.
He was caught following an international police operation starting in London back in May 2010.
An undercover London Metropolitan Police officer used the website GigaTribe, an online file sharing website which allows users to share files directly from their hard drive to another computer via Internet, to track down Siemens.
Using the website's chat function, he was able to convince Siemens to send him a folder of child pornography from his computer.
The officer was then given hundreds of pornographic images
of prepubescent boys, girls and even babies from Siemens, Chu said.
Using Siemens IP address, the undercover officer was able to track the man to Canada and informed police in Ottawa, the court heard.
At the same time, another undercover officer in Toronto was working on Siemens as well, after getting child pornography from him.
They were able to track the IP address to Vancouver, where the Vancouver Police Department was informed of the case, and they were able to track Siemens down to Richmond.
When he was caught, Siemens was very open and honest with police, Adams said.
"He has never done anything to a child nor thought of doing anything to a child," Adams added.
Adams went on to say Siemens never used or was personally aroused by child pornography. He used it purely as a form of currency, trading it around on the Internet for videos of teenage boys, Adams said.
He then produced a psychological report, where the doctor wrote Siemens was not a pedophile, and agreed that he knew the images were wrong, but he hoarded them to trade with others online.
Judge Perry agreed. "It's clear from the evidence that your purpose for having this volume was not for use or selling to others or use for yourself, but as a currency for yourself," Perry said.
Chu said although he did not use it for himself, the simple fact he had so much and so many abhorrent types of images alone is unacceptable.
She pointed to not one, but two hard drives which were found with thousands of images and videos of child pornography.
Chu asked for two years in prison and three years probation, while Adams asked for one year in prison with one or two years probation.
Perry landed in the middle with one and a half years in prison and two years probation.
The judge sentenced him to six months above the minimum one-year penalty for his crime as well as two years probation and registration with the Sex Offenders Registry.
Siemens is also not allowed any access to Internet sites with anyone under 18 years old.
Upon his release, he's not allowed near any public place where there would be people under 18 years old.
Judge Perry said he still had hope for Siemens and since he had no prior criminal record and no instance of any sexual assault, he was convinced this was the best punishment.
"You're not a bad person, but you have a real problem," Perry said.
