Two Abbotsford men were sentenced to jail terms this week for possessing child pornography.
Jeffery Michael Armstrong, 35, was sentenced to four months in jail, while Christopher Robert Lamb, 27, received a 45-day prison term. Both were also given two years’ probation after previously pleading guilty to the possession charges.
In considering his punishment for Armstrong, provincial court Judge Donald Gardner viewed two videos and some still images that had been seized by investigators in February 2009.
He said one video showed an adult female holding the shoulders of a child as she performed a sexual act on an adult male.
“All of the exhibits are disturbing because they deal with children .... as young as three or four years old,” Gardner said Tuesday at the sentencing.
“ ... for children to be so dreadfully victimized is because there is a market for it.”
In sentencing Armstrong, Gardner took into account that Armstrong has shown remorse and shame for his actions, has been in counselling, has family support, and has been regularly employed as a cook.
Defence lawyer Gordon Dykstra had recommended a jail term of three to four months, while Crown counsel Sylvia Domaradzki had suggested nine to 12 months.
Armstrong was charged in February 2009 after U.S. authorities notified local police that a computer in Abbotsford had downloaded child pornography. It was traced to a home on Eaglecrest Drive.
Police executed a search warrant on the home, and seized seven CDs in a dresser drawer in Armstrong’s bedroom, as well as seven videos. The discs contained 135 child porn images, as did four of the videos.
Lamb was charged under similar circumstances in March 2009. He was one of 50 people arrested as part of Project Salvo, the nation’s largest co-ordinated investigation into child pornography.
Abbotsford Police executed a search warrant at his residence on Sherwood Crescent and seized a computer containing child porn.
Lamb pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, but went to trial on a charge of making child porn available to others. He was acquitted of that offence in December, and was sentenced Monday on the possession charge.