Jeffrey Steven Gauthier - Child Pornography - Sentence Upheld

"The majority of the child pornography images were of children aged four to 10 years engaged in every manner of sexual activity"

The 12-month jail term handed a self-confessed porn addict for possessing images of sex with children was upheld yesterday by Alberta's top court.

The three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel rejected
Jeffrey Steven Gauthier's claim he had already served enough time
since his sentencing last Aug. 28.

The court said Judge Ted Fisher made no errors in law when he sentenced Gauthier over his collection of 2,000 pictures and 100 movies.

Gauthier argued Fisher didn't give enough weight to the mitigating factors, including the fact he now appreciated his actions were wrong.

"I have deep remorse for what I have done," the Medicine Hat man said. "I didn't produce this, I did not trade it, I did not purchase this pornography."

Gauthier, 45, said his addiction to "legal" pornography eventually led him to downloading Internet child porn.

"There were times when I was spending 18 hours a day
downloading pornography," he said.

Gauthier said his more than five months behind bars, during which he has been repeatedly beaten, was an eye opener. "What I've learned in jail the last five months, I don't ever want to experience again," he said.

But Crown prosecutor Goran Tomljanovic, defending Fisher's ruling, said the sentence illustrated the severity of the sexual abuse depicted in Gauthier's collection.

"If this court is considering lowering this sentence the panel should view them as well," Tomljanovic suggested.

Gauthier's collection, which police uncovered during a raid on his home last May, included sex of all kinds with mostly young girls, but involved boys as well.

"The majority of the child pornography images were of children aged four to 10 years engaged in every manner of sexual activity," said Justice Robert Cairns in handing down the ruling.