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A Penticton man caught sharing photos of his underage daughter with an online child pornography community is facing jail time.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography after sending 13 images of his stepdaughter in a state of undress to an undercover cop.
He made the images using battery-powered spy cameras placed in the bathroom, which filmed the shower and toilet, as well as other parts of the house, over two years.
The child was aged between 12 and 15 at the time of the filming. The undercover officer asked the man to prove the images were genuine by taking a photo of him holding up three fingers next to a unique striped shower curtain seen in some of the photos, which he did.
The man bragged to the undercover officer about the sexual acts he had performed with the child’s clothes on.
A subsequent legal search of the man’s property turned up hundreds of images of child pornography and numerous videos on his electronic devices. Some were of his stepdaughter, but others were of unidentified children.
Crown attorney Anne Lerches asked Judge Gordon Funt on Tuesday to sentence the man to up to 3.5 years in prison.
A victim impact statement was not provided, but the Lerchs reported that the child is doing well in counseling.
Judge Funt heard more from Lerchs in court Wednesday, but the matter was far from over.
Lerchs cited significant aggravating factors in the case, including that the man distributed the photos and videos to multiple members of the online community, and that he distributed photos of multiple victims.
She noted that it was not known how many people the man shared the images and videos with and how far they spread beyond that which could have a negative impact on the victim’s mental health in the future.
Judge Funt will hear from the man’s lawyer, James Pennington, on Thursday morning before handing down his sentence.
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