Former police officer gets 4-year sentence after recording nude images of his children, possessing child porn

A former Manitoba police officer has been sentenced to four years in prison after he admitted to secretly recording nude pictures of his adolescent children and other offences.

The 36-year-old man pleaded guilty to three counts of making child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography.

"That these offences were committed by an individual who should have instead been a protector and guardian of his victims … makes these already serious offences even worse," provincial court judge Sid Lerner said at a recent sentencing hearing. 

CBC is not naming the officer or the location in order to protect the identity of his victims.

Court heard police arrested the man after one of his daughters reported finding his cellphone in her bedroom, recording video. Local police attended to his home and notified the man he was under investigation, but did not execute a search warrant and seize his electronic devices until the following day.

"A forensic report filed as an exhibit indicates at least some evidence of deletions," Lerner said. 

The man admitted to recording video of the girls undressing in the washroom and in their bedroom on three occasions, and recording two bathroom and bedroom videos of a third teen.

The man produced still images of the third girl and Photoshopped them into pornographic poses.

The man was also charged in connection with a fourth victim, a girl he arrested, after he was found to have saved nude pictures of the girl he found on her phone.

'Faith-shattering events'

The man "greatly exploited and abused his authority ... to access and retain intensely personal and private images of his victim," Lerner said. 

"One can only speculate as to the damage that these faith-shattering events caused to these vulnerable young girls and the psychological impact this betrayal may have upon them in the future," he said.

An examination of the man's computer revealed he had downloaded a small number of child sex videos.

"I am a monster," the man said when confronted by his ex-wife, court heard. 

According to a psychological report provided to court, the man had an upbringing marked by neglect and sexual victimization that left him "psychologically compromised."

"As an adult, his traumatic experience working in law enforcement and unhealthy relationship dynamics appear to have reactivated unhealthy and destructive coping strategies, geared to helping him avoid, numb and escape the discharge of distress emotions," the report said.

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The impact of the man's upbringing was not so overwhelming that it "led inexorably to the offending behaviour," Lerner said.

"The accused, in my view, had a choice, and as a police officer he also would have been aware of treatment and counselling options that would have bolstered any proactive, beat-back-the-demons choice that he might have made in the circumstances," he said.

Lerner ordered that the man have no contact with his victims and that his name be listed on the national sex offender registry for life.