Manitoba judge could order restitution to victim of child pornography
Would be the 1st decision of its kind in the province
A Manitoba provincial court judge is now considering whether or not a Winnipeg man found guilty of possessing child pornography should be ordered to pay restitution to one of his victims.
If the judge agrees, it would be a first in Manitoba.
Elementary school teacher Steven Suomu, 51, was found guilty of possessing child pornography after police raided his home in St. Boniface last summer.
The photos in his possession showed the abuse of girls as young as two years old.
In addition to a three-year prison term, the Crown has asked a judge to order Suomu to pay up to $10,000 in restitution to one of the exploited girls.
Victims should be compensated, said Monique St. Germain, the lawyer for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
The victim — who is now an adult with a husband and two children — was raped by her father when she was a child.
People all over the world continue to share images and videos of her abuse in what the Canadian Centre for Child Protection says is part of one of the most well-known and actively traded series in the child pornography community.
"The courts in Canada have been on a learning curve to understand the ongoing damage impact that child pornography will have on its victims," said St. Germain.
"I think everybody's got a very good understanding of sexual abuse and the impact that that will have on a person but there hasn't been a real recognition of what these individuals go through for the rest of their lives."
The CCCP helped the woman record a victim impact statement that was played for the court in this case.
"What we understand is that there's day-to-day triggers and impacts that can happen. There's sort of an over-arching fear that somebody's going to recognize them or that the people that they meet might have seen their images in the past, and that can be debilitating for them," St. Germain said.
Victims also worry about how their images are being used, including if they are being used to groom other victims, St. Germain said.
There are only three cases in Canada where an offender has been ordered to pay restitution, all of them in Ontario, St. Germain added.
The Manitoba judge is expected to give his decision on Nov. 28.
With files from Caroline Barghout