A 36-year-old Happy Valley-Goose Bay man pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in provincial court Thursday. David Inkpen also faced one count of distribution of child pornography, which the Crown dropped following the guilty plea.
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Standen told the court that police found more than 80,000 images of child pornography on electronics belonging to Inkpen, and an estimated 200,000 images of animated child pornography. She said it included images of female and male children alone and being sexually abused by adults.
The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in prison.
Standen asked for two years less a day for Inkpen, citing the large number of images he had collected in the last two years, the length of time he had been engaged in collecting child pornography and what she sees as a high risk to reoffend.
She pointed out the police are still examining some of the numerous hard drives they seized, so this is not necessarily all the pornography Inkpen owned.
“I think overall, from (Inkpen’s police) statement, we certainly learn that child pornography, whether involving children or anime, has been a significant part of Mr. Inkpen’s life for a very long time,” Standen said.
She said in his statement to police he also tried to justify collecting the child pornography by saying he didn’t abuse the children in the images. This justification shows that he fails to understand that whether he physically harms the child or not, the child was still harmed, Standen said.
By collecting child pornography, he increases the demand, and if people didn’t want the images, less would be made, she said.
In addition to the images, police also found chat logs on his computer where he had chatted with other people interested in child pornography.
“Four to six (years old) is my strike zone,” one message he posted said, “but up to 10.”
Inkpen’s lawyer, Jeff Andrews, told the court he would seek 16 to 18 months in jail for his client, pointing out Inkpen even told police at the time of his arrest he wanted to plead guilty, so he accepts what he did was wrong.
Andrews also pointed out Inkpen has no record and has been gainfully employed most of his adult life. He said once his client is released, Inkpen hopes to take over managing a veterinary clinic in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
The charges stemmed from a tip to police from a chat program called Chatstep, which reported a pornographic image of a young girl age six to 10 had been uploaded. Police contacted Bell Aliant, who assisted police in tracking down Inkpen.
In December 2016 police raided the home where Inkpen was living and seized a significant amount of electronics. Initially he told police they would not find any child porn on his computer, but when they discovered some on his laptop he changed his tune.
According to Standen, Inkpen told police he had been at it for years and had attempted to stop in the past. He told police that before moving to Happy Valley-Goose Bay 2 ½ years ago he had deleted his entire collection of child pornography. However, within a few months he had started collecting it again.
He told police his collection of animated pornography stemmed from his interest in anime, a Japanese cartoon style, which he had been collecting since he was a teenager.
The court was told many of these animated characters were depicted as children and young teens, which is also categorized as child pornography.
A DNA order and placement on the national sex offender registry go along with a child pornography conviction. The Crown is also seeking no contact with children under the age of 18 without an adult present, no access to electronics outside of work or school, and a weapons prohibition for 20 years upon Inkpen’s release from prison.
Inkpen was taken into custody following the sentencing submission, and the date for his sentencing was set for May 24.
