A 28-year-old former Coquitlam resident has been denied an appeal in a case where he originally pled guilty to possessing child pornography, including thousands of sexually explicit images and hundreds of videos of children, including some as young as one-year-old.
Scott Leslie Robert Alexander had claimed that a mandatory minimum sentence of six months was unconstitutional, and that the trial judged erred when giving him an eight-month sentence followed by 18 months of probation.
The case began on March 20, 2015, when the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children noticed someone had uploaded child pornography to their computer showing four images of an adult engaged in a sexual act with a pre-pubescent girl. After tracking the computer’s IP address, police tracked down the Shaw subscriber’s personal information by issuing a production order to the cable company.
As Coquitlam RCMP waited for details on the search warrant outside the suspected basement suit, Alexander came home and immediately gave himself up.
Inside, police recovered a USB drive, cell phone and a hard drive containing about 6,000 images and 400 videos of child pornography. The images, RCMP would later discover, involved children ranging in age from young toddlers to 13-years-old, all organized into folders over a two year period.
By the time the initial trial came around, Alexander was pushing back against the prospect of both attending the Forensic Sex Offender’s Program and being barred from using the internet. Despite admitting that he masturbated to child pornography, Alexander denied he found child pornography sexually arousing.
“I watched it and masturbated to it but I wasn’t really thinking about it. It was a habit,” he said, adding that he didn’t believe he had contributed to children’s sexual abuse by watching child pornography.
Alexander said that he had started watching adult pornography in middle school, and when he heard on the news that it was illegal, he looked for it out of curiosity.
As part of his defence, Alexander noted he was a C- student in high school, and pointed to a previous case where a man with an IQ of 53 was given a reduced sentence because of his diminished cognitive ability.
A 28-year-old former Coquitlam resident has been denied an appeal in a case where he originally pled guilty to possessing child pornography, including thousands of sexually explicit images and hundreds of videos of children, including some as young as one-year-old.
Scott Leslie Robert Alexander had claimed that a mandatory minimum sentence of six months was unconstitutional, and that the trial judged erred when giving him an eight-month sentence followed by 18 months of probation.
The case began on March 20, 2015, when the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children noticed someone had uploaded child pornography to their computer showing four images of an adult engaged in a sexual act with a pre-pubescent girl. After tracking the computer’s IP address, police tracked down the Shaw subscriber’s personal information by issuing a production order to the cable company.
As Coquitlam RCMP waited for details on the search warrant outside the suspected basement suit, Alexander came home and immediately gave himself up.
Inside, police recovered a USB drive, cell phone and a hard drive containing about 6,000 images and 400 videos of child pornography. The images, RCMP would later discover, involved children ranging in age from young toddlers to 13-years-old, all organized into folders over a two year period.
By the time the initial trial came around, Alexander was pushing back against the prospect of both attending the Forensic Sex Offender’s Program and being barred from using the internet. Despite admitting that he masturbated to child pornography, Alexander denied he found child pornography sexually arousing.
“I watched it and masturbated to it but I wasn’t really thinking about it. It was a habit,” he said, adding that he didn’t believe he had contributed to children’s sexual abuse by watching child pornography.
Alexander said that he had started watching adult pornography in middle school, and when he heard on the news that it was illegal, he looked for it out of curiosity.
As part of his defence, Alexander noted he was a C- student in high school, and pointed to a previous case where a man with an IQ of 53 was given a reduced sentence because of his diminished cognitive ability.
But at the time of the original sentence, the judge had noted he worried about how Alexander continued to rationalize his actions and deny therapy. To make matters worse, the trial judge also said the man’s actions did not appear to be impulsive, pointing to the sheer volume of child pornography and how Alexander had neatly archived it.
The B.C. Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge in a March 11 decision, finding no reason to support a reduced sentence.But at the time of the original sentence, the judge had noted he worried about how Alexander continued to rationalize his actions and deny therapy. To make matters worse, the trial judge also said the man’s actions did not appear to be impulsive, pointing to the sheer volume of child pornography and how Alexander had neatly archived it.
The B.C. Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge in a March 11 decision, finding no reason to support a reduced sentence.
