Tuesday March 21, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
An increase in child pornography investigations has led to some recent convictions, said West Shore RCMP today.
The West Shore RCMP Serious Crime Unit is responsible for investigating a variety of serious criminal offences like Attempted Murder, Aggravated Assault, Robbery and Firearms related offences. However, the majority of their investigations consist of crimes like Possession, Distribution and Production of Child Pornography.
In 2022, there were 39 child pornography investigations representing a 105% increase compared to 2021 (i.e. more than double the previous year) when there were 19 child pornography investigations, said West Shore RCMP today. This is one of the largest jumps the detachment has seen. Even investigators have said ‘wow, this is incredible that we’ve seen this much of a jump in this category’,” said Cpl Nancy Saggar, Media Relations Officer, West Shore RCMP today during a media scrum at the detachment.
Another increase is anticipated in 2023 given the number of incidents and investigations that are currently happening, said Cpl Saggar.
Population growth:
“Population growth definitely plays a role in increase in files of all varieties, not just child pornography files,” said Saggar. “We’re seeing more investigations in general. Everywhere in every category.”
None of the investigations reported today came through any reports from schools, said Saggar.
Why this announcement today:
This sort of news “is alarming”, says Saggar. She says “”I don’t think anybody wants to believe that this exists in our community, but it does. And it’s something that’s very important for us to report on.” There is sensitivity around protecting the victim of the crime, she adds. “But we’re trying to bring attention to the fact that these investigations exist, they’re coming in, they’re increasing in number, we’re dedicated, we’re going to keep investigating them.”
“We’re also starting to see results of the hard work that investigators are doing,” said Cst Saggar, noting six convictions in the last five months. The investigations took years to complete. “That’s a testament to the work that the unit is doing.”
Dedicated officers get support:
“The officers in the Serious Crime Unit are extremely dedicated and invest enormous effort into investigating these terrible crimes,” says Sergeant Thana Hodge, West Shore RCMP Serious Crime Unit.
Today outside the West Shore RCMP detachment, Cpl Saggar said that officers in the Serious Crimes Unit never work alone on these cases, but are teamed up as one way to minimize the emotional and mental health impacts of dealing with these types of crimes.
Officers will have access to psychologists and counsellors. They have an employee assistance program. “A lot of these officers have families of their own and children of their own. Viewing these images can be very mentally hard,” says Cpl Saggar. “We do regular check-ins with our members to see how they’re doing.”
Child is anyone under age 18:
A child is defined by law as anyone under the age of 18, so the children in these cases could be of any age; that information is not disclosed for privacy reasons. The child victims in the photos could be located anywhere in the world, given the nature of the Internet.
Any victims known by name are placed under a publication ban, said Cst Saggar.
“Anyone under the age of 18 cannot give consent for a nude image to be shared by anyone,” she said.
“Sometimes in the making or production of images we’ve been able to identify victims,” she adds. In those cases “we can prove it was made here”. Those victims are given supports. In Victoria there is a counselling and therapy based service for victims, and there’s a physical clinic that can conduct exams, if that needs to be done. Through the court system Victim Services also provides supports.
Pandemic & social media:
“This type of crime is largely Internet-related,” says Saggar, compared to sexual assault cases which are in person.
Saggar could not say either way whether there was more online child porn activity during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, when people would have been isolated and on their computers more. But she thinks it has more to do with some people wanting to search out that type of imagery in the first place.
Social media platforms are required by law to report to police any child pornography images that they come across (she listed off Facebook, SnapChat, and Instagram), as well as Internet service providers like TELUS, Bell Media and Shaw. “Oftentimes that will start the investigation on our end,” Saggar told media today.
How leads are received:
The BC ICE, aka Integrated Child Exploitation Team, that is run by the RCMP connects with other agencies across the world including the FBI. BC ICE addresses the ever growing demand for online child sexual exploitation investigations stemming from a dramatic increase in the use of the Internet.
“Sometimes information and tips come forward that way as well,” says Saggar. “Sometimes parents noticed on their phone — my child has something on their phone, maybe their child sent images,” she said. “Parents and victims themselves come forward,” says Saggar.
“If you’re under the age of 18 and you take a photograph of yourself, and you’re nude in that photograph, if you send it to somebody else that’s actually against the law,” says Saggar, even with the photo being sent with your own consent. “Extortion of nude images is also something that we deal with on a regular basis.”
Recent convictions:
“Though the number of these investigations appears to be increasing year over year, the unit takes some comfort in these recent convictions,” said Sergeant Hodge.
This list of recent convictions was released by West Shore RCMP today. All of these incidents were independent of each other.
- February 2023, a 33-year-old male was convicted of Possession of Child Pornography and sentenced to a 7 month Conditional Sentence Order and 18 months probation. The investigation took approximately 8 months to complete;
- January 2023, an 18-year jail sentence was given to an adult male convicted of Sexual Assault, Invitation to Sexual Touching, Possession and Production of Child Pornography. This investigation took approximately 1 year to complete;
- December 2022, a 28-year-old male was convicted of Sexual Assault and Sexual Interference and was sentenced to 2 years less a day in jail. This investigation took over 2 years to complete;
- December 2022, a 30-year-old male was convicted of Possession of Child Pornography, Distribution of Child Pornography and Counselling (others) to commit an offence. He was sentenced to 4 years in jail. This investigation took approximately 1 year to complete;
- November 2022, a 40-year-old male was convicted of being in Possession of Child Pornography and sentenced to 18-months jail and 2 years Probation. This investigation took approximately 2.5 years to complete;
- September 2022, a 28-year-old female was convicted of Luring a Child under the age of 16 and 2 counts of Sexual Assault. She was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail. This investigation took 1.5 years to complete;
- In order to protect the identity of the victims, further details of the above noted investigations will not be released.
“Child pornography investigations take anywhere from months to several years to complete as they are complex in nature and rely heavily on policing resources,” says Cpl Saggar.
“More officers can definitely investigate more cases,” said Saggar in response to a question about the increase in officers being hired by the detachment. “Any case that comes forward is going to be investigated regardless of how many officers we have.” The officer in charge has requested an additional officer for the Special Victims Unit, says Saggar, which includes handling crimes where children have been abused physically or sexually.
The Serious Crimes Unit investigates the child pornography specifically.
“Investigators are almost always required to obtain production orders, search warrants, conduct surveillance and use the skills of Tech Crime Specialists to analyse enormous amounts of digital data. We thank our officers for their unwavering dedication.”
Contacting police:
West Shore RCMP says that if you are a victim of crime, that help is available. Talk to a trusted adult or go to the police station to report it. People can also go online to VictimsInfo.ca to find other types of support.
The West Shore RCMP provides services in Langford, Colwood, Highlands, Metchosin and View Royal as well as Songhees First Nation and Esquimalt First Nation. It is a growing detachment that has hired on more personnel over recent years (paid for by municipalities).
Contact your local police to report a crime and visit Victimsinfo.ca for more information and resources.