A 31-year-old Canora man will serve five years in federal penitentiary, less 71 days time-served, for sexual interference and possession of child pornography.
In a joint submission with the defence, prosecutor Andrew Wyatt told the Court Jason Teddy Matychuk first came to the attention of police in August 2014 when a girl, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, came forward with complaints she had been coerced into performing sexual acts during 2010 and 2011 when she was 14 and 15 years old.
Canora RCMP in conjunction with the provincial Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE) obtained a search warrant and seized a number of electronic devices. On a hard drive, they found more than half a million images including 249 featuring girls as young as eight-years-old in sexually explicit poses or performing sex acts with adult men. They also uncovered 279 movies of which 74 were child pornography, also featuring very young girls having sex with adult males.
Wyatt underscored the offensiveness of the material by describing a video in which an eight-year-old prepubescent girl, who appears to be experiencing significant pain, is molested by an adult male dressed as a clown.
Matychuk was charged with sexual interference and possession of child pornography and released with conditions including residing at an approved residence in Canora, a curfew and having no contact with persons under the age of 16.
In January, Matychuk was back in custody and back in court on new charges. While on conditions, he had visited a friend in another town and molested the woman’s six year-old daughter.
Wyatt characterized that act as “rare, brazen” and demonstrative of a person incapable of containing his urges.
The Crown indicated the plea deal with the defence would be for three years on the first sexual interference charge, one year consecutive on the child porn charge, and one year consecutive on the second sexual interference charge less 71 days time-served. He also asked for three months concurrent on each of two breach charges, lifetime registration in the national Sex Offender Registry, a mandatory DNA order, a 10-year firearms ban and forfeiture of the seized electronic devices.
Finally, the prosecutor argued for a lifetime ban on attendance in places where children are present or are likely to be, on holding employment that would cause him to be in contact with children, on having any kind of contact with children and on having access to the Internet with the exception of work requirements.
This was the only order the defence, represented by Legal Aid supervisor Deanna Harris contested.
She argued that a 10-year ban from the end of his custody was more appropriate given the defendant’s age, lack of prior criminal record, his own history of sexual abuse as a child and the fact that he has two young children. She also argued that contact with his children, in the presence of a sober adult, should be an exception to the 10-year ban citing the importance of family relationships in an offender’s recovery.
Judge Ross Green called the case “shocking stuff,” but accepted the joint submission including Harris’s request to have the Crown’s lifetime ban reduced to 10 years.
