Husband of home daycare owner sentenced to 15 years for child pornography, sexual assault

Joseph Sproull, whose spouse owned a daycare centre that operated out of their home, has been sentenced to 15 years for child pornography and sex crime convictions.

In July 2021, police searched a home in the small community of Marshall, Sask., — located about 240 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon — after being notified that child pornography videos were uploaded online.

Sproull was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography, two counts of making it and one count of distribution. He was also convicted on two counts each of sexual assault and sexual interference. Sproull was sentenced in February.

According to court documents, there were hundreds of images of child pornography on Sproull's personal cellphone. Some depicted sexual activity involving children, court documents say. 

"He's one of the worst offenders that we've seen and a big portion of that was because he did this in a daycare to kids that were in the care of the home," said Andrew Clements, a senior crown prosecutor on the case.

"We were all happy to see such a severe sentence."

The fact that Sproull's spouse operated a daycare centre out of the home was considered an aggravating factor in his sentencing because he held a position of trust and control in the house. Other aggravating factors included that the two victims were "very young children," and the offences happened over an extended period of time, according to court documents.

Conversely, the presiding justice noted mitigating factors including that Sproull had no criminal record, was employed and that Sproull believed he suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Measuring 'monstrous behaviour'

In his decision, the judge wrote that Sproull's offences are "among the most serious and objectionable of offences that fall within the areas of sexual assault on children and child pornography."

"At this level of sexual exploitation of children, it really is a matter of trying to determine whether one case of monstrous behaviour is even more monstrous than another."

According to court documents, a forensic computer analysis expert explained that child pornography material had been on Sproull's phone since August 2020.

There was also evidence that Sproull had uploaded the material to the social media app Kik in March 2021.

RCMP said in a news release they were alerted to child pornography videos being uploaded to an online platform. While executing a search warrant, police discovered that the home was a daycare on July 14, 2021, and notified the provincial Ministry of Education the same day. The ministry suspended the business's licence on July 16, 2021.

Sproull was ordered to provide a sample of his DNA and will be on the sex offender registry for life.

He is also barred from communicating with the victims or other people under 16 years old, owning firearms or weapons for 10 years and cannot be at places where children can be expected to be, like playgrounds.