A Coquitlam man was convicted this week of child exploitation.
On Monday (Aug. 21), Christopher Thomas Smith, 39, was sentenced to 13 months for:
- making or publishing child pornography
- distributing child pornography
- possession of child pornography
He was also sentenced to three years' probation and faces multiple conditions, including his access to children under 16.
The conviction comes after a joint investigation by the BC RCMP Integrated Child Exploitation Unit (BC ICE) and the Victoria Police Department.
He was arrested by BC ICE on Oct. 30, 2019.
"This conviction is a result of a lengthy inter-agency investigation, in which specialized ICE investigators identified a possible online predator communicating with someone whom they believed had a five-year-old daughter and made arrangements to meet them and their child for a sexual purpose," said Cpl. Adelle Brown, spokesperson for BC ICE.
"This work is very difficult and challenging for our investigators, but we are a small passionate group committed to bringing offenders who target children for a sexual purpose to justice.
"Each child rescued motivates us to keep moving forward with our work."
Anyone with information about suspected child exploitation is asked to contact police or report anonymously at www.cybertip.ca.
