Former Alberta pediatrician gets 18 months in jail for child pornography offences

A former pediatrician in Fort McMurray and Edmonton will spend a year and a half in jail for possession and distribution of child pornography.

The sentencing of Ghassan Al-Naami, handed down Wednesday by Court of King's Bench Justice Kent Davidson, comes more than five years after he was arrested and charged over child sexual abuse material found on his laptop.  

The former doctor, whose permit to practise medicine is suspended, received 12 months in jail for the possession charge and 18 months for distribution. The sentences will be served concurrently, resulting in 18 months behind bars.

The case centred on a 45-second video showing a prepubescent girl being abused that Al-Naami received and sent over Skype, as well as his participation in several graphic text exchanges that Davidson found constituted child pornography.

Davidson noted that the collection of material was small, and there was no evidence that Al-Naami's offences involved any of his patients.

But the judge deemed Al-Naami's moral blameworthiness very high, given the specialized knowledge he would have — as a physician caring for children — about the serious harms of child sexual abuse.

"He has demonstrated profound moral failure," Davidson said.

There is no evidence Al-Naami has sought counselling or treatment since his release on bail conditions shortly after his arrest, Davidson added.

"The offender has showed no genuine remorse and taken no steps to address his offending behaviours since 2019. He has taken no responsibility for his actions."

Al-Naami, 52, spoke in court briefly before he was sentenced.

"I respect your judgment, your decision, all the proceedings in the last five years," he told the court.

"I maintain my innocence."

Probation, sex offender registration follow jail sentence

The former doctor was found guilty last year after a trial where Davidson rejected the suggestion that another person in the household could have been behind the offending material on the computer.

Al-Naami's jail sentence will be followed by 18 months of probation, and he will be required to register under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act for 20 years.

Possession and distribution of child pornography both come with mandatory minimum sentences of one-year imprisonment.

Defence lawyer Zachary Al-Khatib argued those provisions should be declared unconstitutional and struck down, and that Al-Naami should instead be sentenced to a period of house arrest.

Davidson decided it wasn't appropriate for Al-Naami to serve his sentence in the community.

The judge said evidence of community support for Al-Naami's rehabilitation, and an assessment that he poses a low risk of reoffending, has a "limited" mitigating effect on the sentence.

"Possession of child pornography is, in itself, child abuse. Failure to recognize this improperly diminishes the gravity of the offence," Davidson said.

Under Alberta's Health Professions Act, a criminal conviction is considered unprofessional conduct that warrants disciplinary action, up to and including licence revocation, according to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.

According to the CPSA, when a doctor is involved in a criminal matter, the regulator's complaints director typically initiates a complaint.

If a disciplinary hearing is scheduled for Al-Naami, it will appear on his public CPSA profile.

The former doctor worked in Fort McMurray from 2012 to 2017 before he moved to a clinic in Edmonton.