A former Colwood volunteer firefighter has been sentenced to a year in a provincial correctional centre after admitting to possessing more than 1,000 electronic images of child sexual abuse.
In a decision released Monday, 69-year-old George Wright was sentenced to one year in prison and three years’ probation after pleading guilty to one count of possessing images of child sexual abuse.
Wright, a volunteer firefighter for 25 years who rose to the role of assistant chief, admitted that he had downloaded more than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse between 1997 and 202o, showing children from three to 12 years old involved in a variety of sexual activities with adults and other children.
Wright was aware his possession of the images was illegal, but his lawyer told the court he did not understand that accessing the images could cause harm.
He stopped downloading images when a friend explained that by accessing them, he was increasing demand for images of child sexual abuse and therefore encouraging the production of them.
Wright did not delete the images in his possession when he stopped downloading them. His collection was seized by police when he was arrested.
In his sentencing decision, Justice Ted Gouge wrote that while most people are “horrified and repelled” by images of child sexual abuse, Wright was “intellectually curious” about how to access the material, saying things like “…how far are they going to take this …”, and “…are they going to kill this kid …?”
A psychologist who interviewed Wright for a presentence report described Wright as emotionally detached when he described viewing the images.
He did not mention the pain or suffering of victims or any long-term impacts on the children depicted, the psychologist said.
The psychologist assessed Wright as a low to moderate risk to reoffend.
The Crown sought a six-month jail sentence, followed by two years’ probation, while Wright’s lawyer sought a conditional sentence order followed by probation.
Gouge determined a longer sentence was appropriate, because Wright’s offence was “significantly more grave” than the case of a person downloading a single image of a naked child, for which a six-month sentence would be fitting, he said.
“It is not difficult to imagine cases of possession of child pornography which are significantly less grave than this one,” Gouge said.
