A Yellowknife man’s sentencing for possession of child sexual abuse material may be delayed as he asks to verify whether all of the images found on his devices should be included as evidence.
Russ Jones was convicted in December of one count of possessing child pornography.
Jones was charged after NWT RCMP seized his devices, including a computer tower and hard drive, in June 2019. Analysis of the devices uncovered more than 5,000 images that met the criminal definition of child pornography.
While the criminal code uses the term child pornography, many organizations and advocates say the term child sexual abuse material better reflects the abuse and exploitation of children.
The Crown submitted a sample of six images as evidence during Jones’ trial, which the defence did not dispute were child sexual abuse material.
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The Crown now plans to use all of the images recovered as evidence in Jones’ sentencing.
In NWT Supreme Court on Monday, Jones’ lawyer, Jay Bran, said his client wants to hire a non-RCMP expert to review the additional images and verify they are child sexual abuse material. He said Jones had not yet found that expert.
Prosecutor Morgan Fane said Jones has had years to review the images or dispute that they are child sexual abuse material. He said while 10 to 20 percent of the images are “on the margin,” many are unequivocally child sexual abuse.
“This is quite late in the day,” he said, adding the defence had not specified a timeline.
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Fane said the Crown is prepared for a three-day Gardiner hearing, where evidence is called during sentencing after someone has been found guilty. He said the Crown wants the case to be resolved “in the coming months, not the coming years.”
Bran said Jones had not wanted to view the images until his conviction. He said allowing his client to view the images at the Crown’s office may expedite the process, as Jones could identify which images need to be verified.
“It’s certainly not an attempt to drag this thing out,” he said.
Justice Shannon Smallwood said the defence will have to identify an expert “sooner rather than later.”
“We’re not taking years to do this,” she said, adding months have already elapsed since Jones was convicted.
Lawyers are set to discuss the matter further on April 8.
