Extreme intoxication no excuse for downloading child porn: Judge

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A Southwestern Ontario man who claimed he was too drunk to remember downloading more than 100 pornographic videos involving young children couldn’t convince a judge he was rehabilitated enough to avoid prison.

A defence lawyer for Liam R. Bock, 25, said the Brantford resident is now sober and has been heavily involved in serving the community through volunteering for several years.

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“He was drinking daily, non-stop when these offences occurred,” Alison MacDonald said. “Over three or four days he consumed a 26-ounce vodka (bottle) a day and two cases of coolers in the same time frame. That’s extreme consumption of alcohol.”

In court, Bock pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and distributing or selling child pornography by sharing some images and videos.

Bock, who was raised under traumatic circumstances, has also been in intensive counselling for several years, said his lawyer. She added that Bock had been successfully following bail conditions in a local residential program.

“He fully acknowledges these were his devices (seized) but he doesn’t recollect anything due to his alcohol use,” MacDonald said.

Justice Robert Gee was skeptical about Bock’s blackouts while managing to download and conduct pornographic conversations on social media.

“He had an SD card with 197 images and 116 videos and every single time they were downloaded or viewed he was drunk?” the judge asked.

MacDonald urged the judge to consider a long – and rare – conditional sentence for Bock’s offences, saying that while they were “truly terrible, criminal, aberrant, inappropriate and disgusting” crimes, incarceration would mean he’d lose the progress he’s made in counselling and life skills.

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But assistant Crown attorney Christine Lund asked for a three-year prison sentence, saying Bock had tried to “gloss over” his offences in a pre-sentence report prepared for the court.

“The distribution (of the images) is aggravating and having no memory of all of it seems hard to believe,” Lund said. “It calls into question the insight of this offender and causes concern for his rehabilitation.”

That denial raised the bar on what the Crown was asking for, she added. “It might have been appropriate to have a two-year sentence with three years of probation but because of the lack of insight, three years is warranted.”

Bock told the judge he’s been working for years to try and fix himself through programming, volunteering and therapy.

“If I can find more therapy and help, I’d like to take it,” he said.

Gee acknowledged Bock had taken positive steps but said his offences were far too serious to merit a conditional sentence.

“You had a rough go at the start – nobody is denying that – but the damage caused by this type of abuse is very, very serious,” Gee said. “The people in those videos are harmed forever. They will never be the same people again.”

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Gee said some of the pornographic material was “particularly disturbing” due to the age of the children and how it was being shared with others.

“I’m concerned about your explanation that you have little to no memory of it,” Gee said. “To say ‘Every single time I was too drunk to remember’ is difficult to accept.”

Gee said three years was the correct punishment.

Bock was ordered to provide a DNA sample and remain on the sexual offenders list for 20 years. Once out of prison, he will be under restrictions about being around children for 10 years.

“I know this wasn’t the outcome you were hoping for,” said the judge, “but I hope you continue to take any counselling you need so we don’t have to deal with this again.”

SGamble@postmedia.com

@EXPSGamble

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