Toronto child exploitation officers are taking the fight against sexual abuse one step further.

The Commit to Kids public awareness campaign, designed for front-line childcare workers to determine if their children are being sexually abused, was launched Thursday at the Toronto Police headquarters.

Chief William Blair said “one of the greatest challenges we face in our society is protecting our most vulnerable members.”

The program aims to prevent child abuse by creating policies and procedures that educate childcare workers about the signs of sex abuse.

Child offenders seek out organizations that deal with kids in order to gain easy access to them, Sex Crimes Unit Det. Sue Burke said.

Commit to Kids aims at stopping child offenders before sexual abuse occurs, Burke said.

Discussing the issue of sexual abuse is embarrassing for victims, therefore the need for this program is imperative, Canadian Centre for Child Protection director Signy Arnason said.

“This program will make sure offenders won’t have the time or access needed to harm another innocent child,” she said.

Although childcare workers strive to protect and maintain a safe environment for children, they’re not always successful in identifying the early stages of child abuse.

This program helps organizations deal with grey areas of misconduct and catch abuse before it happens Burke said.

Arnason’s hope for the future is that all child-serving organization uses Commit to Kids program and so far, 10,000 education kits were sent out to community and childcare groups.

tracy.woolcock@sunmedia.ca

A professional photographer who stealthily snapped pictures of boys changing at public recreation centres and the Toronto Zoo was sentenced Wednesday to two years less a day for child pornography and voyeurism crimes.

Brian Fothergill, 46, wiped away tears after being sentenced in Old City Hall court by Justice Cathy Mocha.

He pleaded guilty earlier to five charges, including breaching previous release conditions.

Crown attorney Rachel Young said there’s no evidence that Fothergill “committed any hands-on sexual offences on a child, but he has crossed the line by taking photos.”

Fothergill, a father of two young children, was also placed on three years probation. The first-time offender was banned from public areas frequented by children for the rest of his life.

Fothergill was first nabbed on April 8, 2009 and told police he had this problem for 30 years and that he had more pictures at home.

Fothergill entered the boys’ change room of the Jimmy Simpson Recreation Centre, at 870 Queen St. E., with a digital camera, Young said in reading an agreed statement of facts.

Two fathers were changing their respective boys, aged two and six, out of their bathing suits.

Fothergill concealed a camera under his arm while secretly taking photos of the naked boys, Young said.

The father of the two-year-old boy spotted Fothergill taking pictures and confronted him. The dad alerted the centre staff, who then notified police.

Investigators retrieved a memory stick Fothergill threw into a toilet and found pictures of young children, both fully nude and in the midst of changing out of clothing — which were not pornographic — as well as pictures of Fothergill’s family.

Police executed a search warrant at Fothergill’s home, seizing several computers and digital storage devices.

Some of those pictures were pornographic, Young told the court.

Pictures were also found of kids changing clothes at Birchmount Pool and of children in the change room near the Toronto Zoo’s water park area.

In total there were 2,713 images of child pornography, 246 of them taken by Fothergill, Young said. There were also 13,589 images of child nudity.

Fothergill was arrested again on last Sept. 18 after he violated bail conditions prohibiting him from attending public areas where there were children. He was given credit for 76 days of pre-trial custody.

When arrested the second time, court heard Fothergill began to cry and told police, “I’ve been trying so hard.”

LONDON, Ont. — There's no question Fadi Al-Hudhud wanted to download adult pornography from the Internet.

What he didn't want was child pornography that would sometimes filter into his computer through the file-sharing program LimeWire.

When Al-Hudhud, 27, was arrested more than two years ago, on June 25, 2008, the architecture student at the University of Western Ontario told police he didn't know about the smattering of child pornography among his downloaded images and videos.

The 10 accessible images and 17 videos found on his computer had the potential to derail his graduate studies in the U.S. and send him to jail.

On Tuesday, Superior Court Justice Peter Hockin said Al-Hudhud was "lazy" and "careless" with his computer. But Hockin said he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt Al-Hudhud intentionally possessed and made available the illegal images. He was acquitted of three counts of making child pornography available and four counts of possessing child pornography.

Al-Hudhud's case is a cautionary tale for computer users looking for free downloads and shared files, his lawyer said.

"I think there is a message for the community who use programs like Limewire that child pornography can come into a computer without being searched for," Jeanine LeRoy said.

"And if you are not careful, the police can find it."

LeRoy said LimeWire is "a dangerous program if not used very carefully" and "parents need to be aware of what their children are using the program for."

LimeWire is a commonly used program where computers users share and swap music, movies and other files. It's also an on-line place for sharing pornographic images and videos.

In recent years, police have patrolled and successfully found people sharing child porn.

The pornography on Al-Hudhud's computer was first detected by the London police cybercrime unit on May 20, 2008, when an officer found six child porn files in the shared LimeWire folder out of 26 files.

The next day, police found six child porn files out of 44 files in the same place. On May 28, 2008, two more child porn videos were found.

Al-Hudhud's computer was seized on June 25, 2008, and police discovered that a new version of LimeWire was installed in the laptop 10 days earlier. Of the 12,086 adult porn images on the computer, 41 were child pornography, and 31 of those images had been deleted, leaving only 10 accessible.

In a separate Windows file named "freaky", there were 1,232 videos and 17 were determined to be child pornography.

There appeared to be a large number of files to be downloaded but there was evidence Al-Hudhud had taken steps to make sure at least his music files could not be shared.

He told the police after his arrest he used LimeWire to download music, TV shows, movies and adult pornography.

He admitted he was sometimes lazy and let the program run, but didn't believe anyone could share anything with him.

His search words, "porn", "sex" and "lesbian" were broad, but he said if he found any child pornography, he would delete immediately.

As for the "freaky" file, Al-Hudhud told police he didn't create it.

The judge said though he was troubled by some aspects of the case — especially the "freaky" file — Al-Hudhud never changed his version of what happened from the moment of his arrest until his testimony at his trial.

Al-Hudhud told police he was "OK, not bad" with computers and thought he had turned off all the sharing functions. He wasn't aware he was making illegal images available.

Hockin said Al-Hudhud admitted he was interested in collecting adult pornography, but there was evidence he was vigilant in deleting images. However, the search words were too wide to not filter out child pornography even if he didn't want it.

The judge said he found Al-Hudhud's testimony credible and forthcoming and never shaken by the Crown's cross-examination.

"He didn't go looking for it," Hockin said.

Just hours after Hamilton police announced on Wednesday they were hunting Gerald Graham Garrity for sexual assaults on two women when they were children, a third victim came forward.

Det. Helena Russell of the sexual assault unit, however, believes there are more victims who haven’t come forward because police allege the 54-year-old man preys on vulnerable young girls — particularly runaways — under 16.

Garrity, of Hamilton, is wanted on a warrant charging him with 59 sex-related charges involving one victim, and two other counts involving a second victim.

Russell said the suspect was in a position of authority involving one of the victims, but didn’t want to elaborate.

Police were contacted by a woman in January who gave them allegations of abuse of when she was under 16. The woman came forward because her daughter was contacted by the suspect.

The detective assumes that the man knew the daughter was that of his alleged victim.

She said when that victim came forward, a second woman who knew her also came forward.

The alleged incidents occurred between 1980 and 1981.

Russell said the woman who contacted police Wednesday was also allegedly sexually assaulted while she was under 16. She was unable to say when those sexual assaults occurred as detectives were still gathering evidence.

Garrity is currently charged with 15 counts of sexual assault, nine counts each of sexual interference, sexual exploitation and guardian procuring sexual activity, seven counts of invitation to sexual touching, eight counts of exposure to a person under 16, two counts of indecent assault on a female, and single counts of gross indecency and corrupting a child.

Victims, witnesses and anyone who knows of his whereabouts are being asked to call either Russell, of the sexual assault unit, at 905-540-5544 or Det. Art Lenters, with the child abuse branch at 905-540-6253.

rob.lamberti@sunmedia.ca

Adolescent sex offenders are not as socially inept and awkward as society may believe them to be, a recent study has shown.

In fact, their social skills — such as having a knack for making friends or asking a member of the opposite sex out on a date — don’t differ that much from their non-offending peers.

It’s more likely the offenders have some sort of atypical sexual interests, researchers found, such as sexual desires towards young children and exposing themselves in public situations.

Knowing this, researchers say, will better allow professionals to tailor the assessments and treatments of adolescent sex offenders.

“If you walked into a typical group treatment for adolescent sex offenders, you might notice a lot of focus on social skills, like how to approach a girl, how to deal with conflict and understanding non-verbal communication,” said Royal Ottawa psychology consultant Dr. Michael Seto, the lead author of the study What Is So Special About Male Adolescent Sexual Offending? “Our research suggests that social skills training is not what young sex offenders need most in order to be rehabilitated.”

Seto and co-author Martin Lalumiere of the University of Lethbridge spent several years conducting a meta-analysis of 59 independent studies that compared 3,855 male sex offenders with 13,393 male non-sex offenders between the ages of 12 and 18.

Seto said the results of the study will have an impact on treatment as offenders’ social skills may not need to be examined and improved. It would be better, Seto said, if such work focused on other factors such as atypical sexual behaviours and whether an offender was himself a victim of sexual abuse at a young age.

“Discussing sexuality — early exposure to sex or pornography, sexual fantasies and sexual arousal — would likely get us closer to understanding why the offences were committed,” said Seto, “and prevent similar ones from being committed again.”

The authors did find, however, adolescent sex offenders had more feelings of social isolation and withdrawal than non-sex offenders.

“If adolescents think they cannot talk about what they are thinking or feeling, they cannot seek help and guidance,” Seto said. “Encouraging more open dialogue about sexuality between young people and their parents, teachers and health care workers would be a key element in preventing adolescents from committing sexual offences.”

terri.saunders@sunmedia.ca

A “long overdue” report on the domestic sex trafficking of Canadian children should attract the attention of everyone from politicians to principals, says an MP committed to stopping human trafficking.

“They should be looking at their cities and they should be saying, ‘What are we doing about it?’ Every public safety minister, every justice minister, every immigration minister — we as a community need to join in. Every teacher, every principal, every church group, every community group needs to pay attention,” said Winnipeg MP Joy Smith, whose private member’s bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences for child traffickers received Royal Assent earlier this week. “The evidence is there and people need to stand up and say our children are not for sale here in Canada.”

A new RCMP report obtained by the Sun this week found that countless “forgotten” children are being trafficking within and across provincial borders. Canada has no clear plan to help them.

The report, “Hidden Abuse, Hidden Crime,” was penned by Marlene Dalley, a research officer with the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Despite dozens of articles chronicling domestic trafficking cases in Canada over the last few years, several people e-mailed the Toronto Sun in response to a story about the report in Friday’s paper, charging that the findings are “fictitious” and that children aren’t trafficked in Canada.

“The youngest (human trafficking victim) I ever worked with was eight years old ... in Vancouver,” Smith said, before recalling a Winnipeg case in which a mother forced her three children — ages 10, 11 and 13 — into prostitution to support her drug addiction.

“I think the ordinary citizen (who sees the children on the street) wouldn’t recognize what was really happening,” said the Conservative MP. “(The johns) are indiscriminate. Sometimes the younger they are, the better they like it. It’s very sick. This (Dalley’s) report is long overdue, long overdue.”

Dalley’s report highlighted “the urgency and necessity” for national, regional and municipal plans to combat child trafficking in Canada.

More than three years ago, a motion calling on the government to adopt a comprehensive strategy to combat human trafficking was passed by unanimous vote in the House of Commons. There is still no strategy.

Smith said she has presented a national strategy to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“When I first went to Parliament, everybody told me there was no human trafficking in Canada ... and when I first went to Status of Women, I was laughed at, it was embarrassing,” Smith said. “Nobody’s laughing at me anymore.”

Beyond Borders president Rosalind Prober said Canadians may accept children are pimped out in their country, but they don’t make the link to trafficking because there is a misconception that trafficking always involves the movement of people.

“A trafficked child is one that is being harboured, exploited, basically a cash cow for somebody who is using them for profit,” Prober said. “You can go to foreign countries and see this functioning. In our own country, it’s much more hidden, unless of course, you want to go onto a social marketing site (like Craigslist) and have a look.”

tamara.cherry@sunmedia.ca

OWEN SOUND, Ont. -- A 68-year-old Grey-Bruce man who forced his young stepchildren to live in a “dungeon” beneath the carport floor for about three years and sexually and physically abused them was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The shocking details of the man’s crimes between May 2004 and June 2007 were contained in a Superior Court of Justice decision released Monday, following a jury trial last winter.

Publication bans shield the man from being publicly identified or references made to other details because doing so would identify the victims. 

“For three horrendous years, these children existed in an environment of abuse, the reality of which is hard to grasp,” Thompson wrote.

“They were literally isolated from society, unable, not from location but from fear, to seek help.”

The children’s mother, when told by her daughter of the stepfather’s abuse, “rejected” the complaints and said “everything was going to be all right and then asked her if she could get over it.”

The mother pleaded guilty June 18 before another judge to two counts of assault with a weapon, a nylon strap, on two of her children, between Sept. 1, 2004 and June 25, 2007. She received a six-month conditional sentence and 18 months probation.

Terms include non-association with the children, unless approved by the Children’s Aid Society, in whose care they reside. Her sentence took into account her lack of a record and significant health issues, assistant Crown attorney Peter Leger said.

The stepfather, who was never charged criminally with keeping these children in wretched conditions, punished the girl when he learned she had complained to her mother about the treatment she and her brothers were enduring.

The judge said the circumstances were only discovered when a home-schooling “bureaucrat noticed a glitch in her paperwork and sent someone out to correct the paper trail.” 

The family’s “main” home was “relatively modern,” with plumbing, a TV sound system and computer. It was “neat and tidy and tastefully decorated.”

But the children’s living quarters “abruptly changed” in October/November 2004. They were moved, for reasons unclear in the judge’s reasons, to a concrete-walled basement containing two rooms beneath the carport floor. It was “dungeon like,” Thompson wrote.

The concrete rooms weren’t fed by furnace heating ducts. The only heat radiated from the sides of the basement furnace. There was no running water and so the children drank from an outside tap which had to be thawed in winter.

The children were forced to use an outhouse in all seasons.

They only entered the locked main house doors with permission. They were allowed to shower there once or twice monthly and then had to return to their quarters, the judge wrote.

The offender was found guilty of repeated sexual assault, sexually touching while in a position of trust and physically assaulting his stepdaughter while she was between the ages of 14 and 17 years.

“For two and three-quarter years he forced his stepdaughter to have sexual intercourse with him at least a couple of times per week,” in addition to other sex acts. “She did so unwillingly.”

Thompson said that girl is “psychologically doomed to an abnormal existence,” being left “incapable of any normal relationship with a male.”

The offender struck each of his stepsons with a whip, rubber hose or a leather harness repeatedly between September 2004 and June 2007.

One boy was between 10 and 13 years, another was seven to 10 years old and the third was between five and eight years old.

The offender was found guilty of physically assaulting each stepson with a weapon and separately with physically assaulting two of his stepsons.

Often the assaults were punishment “for their perceived inadequate performance of their chores,” Thompson wrote. The offender “brutally” assaulted them also because he thought they “disregarded his sense of orderly conduct within his household.”

Their welts healed but they carry mental scars, the judge wrote. “It appears that the boys will bounce back to some semblance of normalcy,” Thompson wrote.

The children’s home schooling, which began several years ago, didn’t last long. Instead they were put to work around the farm.

“These children performed chores on the farm and tended the garden for most of the day. They mucked the barn, gathered wood, tended to the animals and worked in the garden. They sold vegetables at the farm gate. They worked long and hard all day long,” Thompson’s reasons say.

“There were no entertainment facilities in the basement. The children had only each other to entertain themselves. No friends were allowed on the property nor were they permitted to visit anyone.”

From the fall of 2004 to March 2007 the children lived and ate in their subterrainian rooms. In March 2007 they were permitted to eat in the main house.

They were “often hungry” and were punished for stealing apples or from the vegetable garden they tended. They were told raw vegetables were poisonous, Thompson said. Freezers in the carport had locks welded on.

Though charges related to a period starting in 2004, Thompson said abuse began in 2003.

Thompson said “society’s repugnance and indignation” of (the offender’s) treatment of his stepchildren should be the primary focus of sentencing.

The offender is “unrepentant” and “denies any wrongdoing towards his stepchildren, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

Thompson wrote that these “offences against humanity are such that” he exercised his authority to delay any possibility of parole being granted until five years are served behind bars.

Thompson also banned the stepfather from possessing firearms, prohibitted and restricted weapons for 10 years and ordered him to provide a sample of his DNA. He had no prior criminal convictions.

The offender’s name will be added to the National Sex Offender Registry.

Defence lawyer Colin Adams said in a brief interview that no decision has been made concerning any possible appeal.

EDMONTON — An Alberta man has been charged after allegedly befriended a teen girl online and getting her to send naked photos of herself to him.

Police say a 36-year-old Fort McMurray man spent nearly a year convincing a 15-year-old Halifax girl he was a female modelling agent. Trusting her new Facebook friend, she began sending the so-called agent naked pictures of herself, until police stepped in.

"This person went through a lot of trouble and time to gain her trust," said Sgt. Patrick Waldorf, with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team's northern ICE unit.

The man even sent his victim money, Waldorf said.

The disturbing case started to unravel last June, when a man began an online relationship with a Halifax teen by claiming to be a female modelling agent.

It wasn't long before the man began convincing the girl to submit naked pictures and webcam images of herself, police said.

In return, the man allegedly persuaded the victim to watch videos of him engaged in sexual acts.

He was busted when the victim's parents became suspicious and called Halifax police.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team's ICE unit soon swept in to lay charges.

Waldorf said the case was a good reminder for parents to keep a close eye on their kids' online activities.

"The communication line between parents and kids is just so important," he said.

Especially, he said, since police have recorded a spike in child luring cases in recent years.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have contributed to the problem, Waldorf said.

Ryan Davison, 36, is charged with one count of child luring, possession of child pornography, and accessing child pornography, as well as two counts of indecent acts.

He is scheduled to make his first court appearance July 12.

michelle.thompson@sunmedia.ca

LONDON — It was a crime the defence characterized as a "stumble" that led to a fall.

The assistant Crown attorney called it an inexcusable breach of trust.

A conversation that award-winning London teacher Greg Stewart, 55, overheard one of his Grade 8 pupils have started a two-month process that led him to touching the 14-year-old's breast in a classroom and pleading guilty to sexual assault.

Stewart, who worked for 29 "unblemished" years at Orchard Park public school, pulled his 14-year-old pupil aside in late January 2009 and told her he'd overheard her talking about masturbation.

He advised her how to touch herself in the shower, and told her to masturbate at 11 p.m. so he could do so at the same time at his own home.

The next day, he asked her if she'd done her "homework."

Stewart, originally charged with invitation to sexual touching, sexual interference and sexual assault, pled guilty to sexual assault.

His sentencing hearing began in a London court Monday.

His victim delivered a victim impact statement that detailed a loss of self worth, a loss of friends and hardship on her family.

"I felt like I don't belong anywhere. My friends rejected me and my parents thought of me differently," the girl, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, told Justice John Skowronski.

"I was scared of going into Grade 9. I was bullied. People wrote terrible things about me on Facebook and carved things onto my locker. I didn't do anything wrong . . . Even my teachers gave me the cold shoulder."

Her grades dropped, she became depressed and her relationship with family members became strained.

Because Stewart was such a popular teacher and coach at Orchard Park, many didn't believe the charges against him, assistant Crown attorney Karen Bellehumeur told the court.

The well-liked teacher won a Prime Minister's Award for teaching excellence in 1993. Stewart's family, friends and colleagues wrote letters about his character and career to support a submission by his lawyer, Patrice Band, that he shouldn't get any jail time.

"Mr. Stewart stumbled and fell from a position of authority," Band said.

For two months, Stewart would take the girl aside and ask her about masturbation, tell her to "Google" it and told her about ways to touch herself.

On March 24, he "stumbled and fell" when he touched the victim on the breast while in a classroom with her and another pupil.

He slid his hand down the side of her body to her hip and thigh, and immediately removed it when the girl poked her friend to show her what was going on.

Later that day, he took the victim aside and apologized.

"Sorry about this morning," he told the girl.

"That's kind of weird. I'm a 14-year-old. That's wrong," she replied.

"I know. Can I do it again?" Stewart said. "Please?"

He continued to talk to her about masturbation, according to an agreed statement of facts, and told her to use a banana or candle as a sexual aid. The next day, the girl told another teacher what had gone on.

The teacher confronted Stewart, who asked to apologize to his victim.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know I was making you uncomfortable. I've had a good career here, I don't want it to end now," the girl said Stewart told her.

"I sat there and looked down and said I'd think about it," she told police.

Stewart was arrested that night.

About 15 supporters of Stewart, who turns 56 Wednesday, sat in the courtroom. Among them were his mother.

While in detention before his bail hearing, Stewart was punched repeatedly by a man who was eventually convicted o assaulting him.

"He's scared about what happened in cells. He's a broken man. He was previously gregarious and fun-loving ," Band said.

Stewart's detention before his bail hearing was "punishment paid up front, but it's punishment nonetheless," his lawyer said.

Stewart read a statement before the court, in which he apologized to the girl and her family and said he felt guilt and embarrassment.

"I am shamed and remorseful that this happened," he said. "It continues to be difficult to bear the burden of shame."

The impact of the assault in courthouse cells continues to haunt and "terrify" him, Stewart said, and he can't sleep.

Skowronski addressed the fact that the girl felt ostracized by teachers and peers.

"Fingers of blame should not be pointed at the complainant, either by immature high school students and least of all by adults. If there's someone who thinks that there's a set-up here, they're not dealing in the same reality as I am," Stewart said.

The Crown is asking for nine to 12 months in jail. Skowronski will deliver his verdict Friday.

TORONTO -- The Cornwall Public Inquiry, a five-year look at the allegations of child sexual abuse and rumours of a pedophile ring in Cornwall, Ont., came with a $50-million price tag.

CBC reports the inquiry, which was established in 2005 to examine public institutions' response to the allegations in Cornwall, spent $50.2 million by March 15, 2010. The inquiry released its final report in December.

About 60% of the costs went to legal fees for parties at the inquiry, including accused pedophiles, sexual abuse victims and the local Catholic diocese.

In the 1990s, reports of alleged sexual abuse of a former altar boy by a Catholic priest and a probation officer led to a larger-scale investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.

At least 69 alleged victims came forward. Fifteen men were charged, although only one was convicted. Rumours of a pedophile ring in Cornwall swirled and some people complained about the investigation.

Inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude provided a series of recommendations to the province on how to respond in similar circumstances and how to support healing and reconciliation in the future.

A Morinville man has admitted having sex with his daughter and her friend — and forcing the teen friend to continue by threatening to send sex videos of them to her family.

The 39-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, pleaded guilty Friday in Court of Queen's Bench to sexual assault, sexual interference with a person under 14, extortion, possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography.

According to a statement of agreed facts, the man began sexually abusing his daughter, now 18, when she was nine years old and the abuse continued for five years.

The girl also told her mother about the sexual abuse and, although she cried upon learning of it, nothing was done.

The statement says the man sexually assaulted the daughter's friend, who is now nearly 17, for a three-year period and the assaults included at least 100 acts of intercourse.

In October 2008, he forced her to come to his house, saying she had to or he would break her boyfriend's jaw. They then had sex and he videotaped it.

Later in the same month, he used the same threat to force her to have sex with him and again videotaped it.

According to the agreed facts, the man also sent the girl text messages threatening to send video clips of their sexual activity to her friends and family.

In November 2008, the girls went to the Morinville RCMP detachment and tearfully reported what had happened.

The next day, police raided the man's home and seized his BlackBerry, on which was found three videos of the man and his daughter's friend having sex.

He was arrested and admitted the videos on his BlackBerry showed him and the teen having sex and also admitted making threats against her boyfriend.

A sentencing hearing for the man, who is free on bail, is scheduled for June 25.

A Toronto photographer who was acquitted of possession of “repulsive” child pornography he amassed as part of an art project was ordered convicted by Ontario’s highest court.

Madam Justice Louise Botham acquitted Robert Katigbak in 2008 after she accepted the 32-year-old’s version that he spent seven years gathering images of children being sexually assaulted.

In an unanimous judgment released Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal quashed that acquittal and replaced it with a conviction for possession of 628 images and 30 video clips of children and babies being sexually assaulted.

Police seized 567 unique images of “real children and real abuse. . .with images of adults, both male and female, engaging in (sexual) activities with children,” the judgment stated.

The judgment by Mr. Justice Robert Blair, Mr. Justice Michael Moldaver and Madam Justice Janet Simmons pointed out that Katigbak told investigators he had been collecting the child porn images for seven years to create his gallery exhibit.

Images of penetration of babies were displayed, the court noted.

“They (pornographic images) are repulsive in the extreme to anyone who cares about children and the protection of children,” the judgment stated.

The appeal court judges sharply criticized Madam Justice Botham, of the Ontario Court of Justice, for mistakenly accepting his defence of artistic merit and freedom of expression.

Few people accused of possessing child pornography will evade convictions by using artistic merit as a shield, the court warned in its judgment. The judges noted Canada’s child pornography laws are among the toughest in the world.

Botham “paid scant attention to society’s interests in ensuring the protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse,” the judgment stated. Botham never considered the psychological trauma the children depicted in the images suffered.

“Trial judges must take a hard look at the facts when the ‘legitimate purpose’ defence is put forward,” the judgment stated. “Duelling and important societal interests are at stake. (But) the freedom of expression is not absolute.”

The court concurred with Crown counsel Christine Bartlett-Hughes that Katigbak wasn’t an artist fashioning an ambitious project prompting viewers to abhor sexual violence against children. He was simply a relentless child-porn fan when he was arrested at his home and his computer was seized and searched on April 19, 2006.

Katigbak, a psychology graduate, worked at Japan Camera for several years and Pentax Canada before he was laid off.

His goal was to “present the issue of child exploitation and pornography from the perspective of the exploited child,” the judges said. “Collecting child pornography, he said, would allow him to determine what kind of child pornography ‘was out there’ and to explore his own emotional response to viewing the material.”

His collection never qualified for the artistic merit defence, and anyone could see his “expressed purpose or intention was unreasonable,” the judges said.

Sentencing is to be scheduled.

CALGARY - Oregon cops have charged a Calgary long-haul trucker with allegedly trying to lure a 13-year-old girl with suggestive text messages.

Newport police were contacted by the mother of a young girl in the coastal U.S. city on Wednesday after discovering her daughter had been receiving sexually charged text messages on her cellphone from a stranger.

The messages suggested the sender would be meeting her at the Rodeway Inn the next day to have sex, prompting investigators to launch a sting operation, posing as the 13-year-old via text message to spring the trap.

On Thursday morning, police contacted the man with the girl's cellphone, confirming through the device he knew the age of the girl as well as his identity, 39-year-old Beeja Ram of Calgary.

"We wrote in a couple of our texts and restated the age," Det. Ken Real of the Newport County Police Department told CTV News.

"He acknowledged he knew she was 13 and requested sexual favours."

Ram had parked his semi-tractor trailer and taken a cab to the motel, but when he went inside to meet the girl, he instead was greeted by cops who arrested him without incident.

Cops said Ram had been in Newport several times over the last year and in early May had met the victim and her friend.

After getting the girl's cellphone number, police allege he began contacting her with sexually suggestive text messages, which ultimately culminated in the suggestion they meet for sex.

Ram, who is now in Lincoln County Jail, has been charged with online sexual corruption of a child, sex abuse and coercion and his bail has been set at US$165,000.

shawn.logan@sunmedia.ca

OSHAWA — Emotions were running high when a 26-year-old man accused of killing two-year-old Keagan Davis was brought into a courtroom for the first time courtroom since his arrest nearly three months ago.

Michael Monckton’s parents and siblings were in court hoping he’d get bail, despite the fact he faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of his girlfriend’s son.

Several of his family members burst into tears upon learning the bail hearing was to be put over to a later date. And they were still weeping as the sullen, withdrawn-looking Monckton was led from the prisoner’s box.

“Hey Mike,” one man, believed to be his father, shouted as the accused was leaving the courtroom heading back to his jail cell in Lindsay. “We love you buddy!”

Monckton has appeared in court numerous times via video since his arrest.

The dead boy’s mother, Leigh-Ann Cooper, and father, Dan Davis, were also in court, each surrounded by their supporters.

Davis, 29, glared at the man blamed in his child’s death by Durham homicide detectives. He was visibly upset as he left the courthouse with his girlfriend.

Police have released few details about their investigation.

Keagan was at home in his mom’s basement apartment when he died Jan. 5. Monckton, who was caring for the child that day, was taken into custody three days later and charged with second-degree murder. He has been locked away in isolation ever since.

Monckton’s family has told The Sun that he maintains he has done nothing wrong. Keagan’s mom has said she has no reason to believe Monckton hurt her child.

Cooper endured an onslaught of verbal attacks after announcing in a Sun story in February that she was standing by her man.

She chose not to comment Wednesday, on the advice of her lawyer.

The next court date has not yet been decided.

chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca

A 26-year-old Nanaimo, B.C., man is facing a child luring charge after he allegedly tried to gain the trust of a young girl in order to get sexual favours from her.

The RCMP say officers seized several computers and hard drives from the man's home Wednesday night. He was taken into custody but released Thursday after promising to appear in court in July. He's not allowed to be in the company of anyone under the age of 16 unless they're accompanied by another adult.

The age of the girl hasn't been released.

Police say they're recommending the man be charged with one count of child luring, but said additional charges of possession of child pornography are possible.

Grooming is when someone forms a connection with a minor for the purposes of having sex.

“It is not a new phenomenon and takes place in almost any public meeting area," said Const. Gary O’Brien of the Naniamo RCMP. "Food courts in local malls, smoke pits outside high schools, public facilities frequented by teenagers and, of course, online, utilizing popular social networking sites.

"Parents need to monitor their child’s Internet usage and find out who they are spending time with."

Peel Regional Police are poised to reveal details Tuesday of a four-month undercover child pornography investigation which the force says identified 73 suspects in 20 countries.

The probe was launched after the arrest last Nov. 17 of a 29-year-old Brampton man outside his home on a series of child pornography and sexual assault charges.

His case, which involved undercover police in Peel and the Alberta Integrated Child Exploitation Unit, remains before the court, and is the subject of a publication ban.

Police at the time alleged there was a 4-year-old victim in that case. Names were not released to protect the youngster’s identity.

The accused man is charged with possession of child pornography, making child pornography available to others, manufacturing child porn, sexual assault on a minor under 16, plus sexual interference.

A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday, during which details of the Internet Child Exploitation Unit’s followup investigation, dubbed “Project Unity,” are to be unveiled.

Police said evidence gathered against the 73 suspects “will be shared with our partner law-enforcement agencies world-wide and has already led to some arrests.”

ian.robertson@sunmedia.ca

QUEBEC ­- A man convicted of kidnapping a child, raping him and leaving him an empty fuel tank in Levis, Que. said he regrets his actions, though he maintains he has no memory of the events.

Pierre Defoy, 52, said he knows he committed the crimes for which he pleaded guilty to after seeing the evidence against him, and says he believes his victim ³100 %."

The man, who blames his behaviour on the medication he was taking, apologized in court.

³Since the beginning, I have felt very dirty,² he said. ³There is not one day that I¹m not ashamed. I am infinitely sorry for what I did.² Defoy said he has to take responsibility for his actions.

³I know that I transported (the victim) in a trunk, that he was scared, that I raped him and that I took away his innocence,² said Defoy, who also apologized to the victim's parents.

An expert¹s opinion entered into evidence by the Crown shows that Defoy will need lengthy therapy to deal with his sexual problems.

Dr. John Wolwertz testified that Defoy's struggles with his sexual orientation, and may have developed amnesia to divert his attention away from his crime. Wolwertz also said Defoy was at a high risk to re-offend.

During the hearing, the prosecution also requested that Dufoy be declared a long-term offender for the maximum time period of 10 years. The defence did not object to the request.

Security in the courtroom and on the fourth floor was increased as police were worried that a group of young men, believed to be members of a local gang, would confront Defoy.

Police had been watching and filming the men, and arrested two of them in the courthouse hallway during a break in the proceedings.

One of the men resisted arrest after he took a photo of a police officer in civilian clothes talking on his phone. Several special constables were called in to help subdue the man, who was fighting with police and demanding explanations.

Defoy was eventually allowed to testify in the protected box normally reserved for people facing charges.