A B.C Supreme Court judge has sentenced a man who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography to 27 months in prison.
“What is at issue here are images of exploited children who are being sexually abused,” Justice Murray Blok said in sentencing Kelly Glen Isbister, 52.
Blok said in his newly released Sept. 13 decision that images and video files depicting child pornography were detected by one of the popular social media platforms.
Those images were reported to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, a U.S. non‑profit organization that works to reduce the internet distribution of child sexual exploitation images and videos.
Blok said the centre forwarded reports to the B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.
Search warrant
Investigations revealed the images and video files to be associated with accounts in Isbister's name.
On Dec. 19, 2019, police executed a warrant at Isbister's address and seized his cell phone, which was examined as per the warrant.
Isbister was arrested at the scene, but he was released without conditions once the warrant execution was complete.
The Aldergrove man was arrested on the charge on Aug. 27, 2020 and a second cell phone seized at that time was found to contain further images of child sexual abuse.
In all, Blok said, police found a total of 150 images and 10 videos depicting child pornography on Isbister's cell phones.
'Abuse inflicted on the child'
The judge said such an accused may not have played a direct role in a child sexual abuse crime, but added such behaviour increases the risk of harm to children.
“Someone, somewhere, sexually abused an exploited child in order to create these images, and possession and distribution of this material is tantamount to complicity in, and the endorsement of, the abuse inflicted on the child,” said Blok, who presided over the case in New Westminster.
In 2014, Isbister pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual interference with persons under 16. He was given an effective four‑year sentence with one year credit for pre-trial custody.
He also received a lifetime order prohibiting him from communicating with people under age 16, attending public facilities or areas where people under 16 are present, or seeking or having employment of any sort that involved being in a position of trust or authority over people under 16.
Isbister was given credit for 369 days for time spent in custody awaiting sentence.
