Judge orders psychiatric assessment for man convicted in child porn case
Posted May 28, 2015 2:43 pm.
Last Updated May 28, 2015 7:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A judge has ordered a Toronto man convicted in a child pornography investigation to undergo a 60-day psychiatric assessment to determine his risk.
Brian Way, 44, was convicted on May 12 of making, possessing, publishing, distributing, exporting, and importing child pornography.
Once the assessment is completed, Way could be declared a long-term offender, which means he would be monitored on a sex offender registry for the rest of his life.
At a sentencing hearing on Thursday, Crown lawyer Jill Cameron argued Way — who has no prior convictions for child porn — should be assessed by a psychiatrist as a first step towards the designation because he poses a risk of potentially harming more children in the future.
Crown lawyers can move forward with the long-term offender application only after the results are known.
The psychiatric results are expected at the end of August and the ruling could come down in the fall.
In the Crown’s argument, Cameron said Way has a complete lack of empathy for the victimized children, and that there is a risk of psychiatric harm to children in the future.
The Crown said he is a long-term offender candidate because he is “an admitted pedophile who spent a large time amassing porn” at home.
Way pleaded guilty to seven child pornography charges related to his home collection, but contested nine charges related to more than 170 of the films he sold online. Those charges included making and possessing child pornography, possessing property obtained by crime and instructing a criminal organization.
In March, Way’s lawyer Nyrown Dwyer said the films produced and sold by Way weren’t sexual in nature but simply showed “naked boys doing silly things.”
Dwyer told the judge-alone trial that while Way was aware some buyers might have a sexual interest in children, the films themselves had no sexually explicit content or sexual language.
Way was arrested in 2013 in a massive investigation, which led to more than 300 arrests in Canada, the United States, Mexico and other countries. Police found 187,000 images and thousands of films. Almost 400 children were rescued.
Police said at the time he had made millions producing and selling the films through a company called Azov Films.
With files from The Canadian Press
