A provincial court judge has sentenced a Nanaimo man for possessing child porn and sexually touching a 9-year-old girl.
47-year-old Steven Houting pleaded guilty to possessing child porn and the count of sexual interference of a person under the age of 16 in September.
In an agreed statement of facts presented Friday, Houting befriended the girl’s mother and convinced her to let her daughter go swimming with him and his children.
Once in the changeroom Houting ordered her to change in front of him and wear a bikini he brought along.
After numerous such trips, he sexually touched her in the change room of the Beban Park pool in March 2018.
The girl told her mother about it who then reported it to the police.
Police searched Houtings house and car and found the bikini along with 118 pictures of the girl wearing it.
They also found nearly 13,000 pictures or videos of child porn unrelated to the girl.
Crown Counsel says in his favour Houting has no criminal record and he pleaded guilty to the charges but aggravating factors included the girl’s age, Houting’s position of trust and the psychiatric assessment that he’s a moderate risk to re-offend.
“Certainly right now these incidents do seem to be increasing exponentially. We see it through the tip line and obviously through the stats and what law enforcement here in Canada is dealing with and what child welfare is dealing with as well,” said Stephan Sauer, a Director of cybertip.ca.
Cybertip.ca is an organization that’s battling the online sexual exploitation of children and says there’s a strong correlation between viewing child porn and sexual abuse.
“Certainly, an individual who has a sexual interest in children, that is problematic in and of itself and they’re often looking for avenues to act out on that sexual interest and so the sexual child abuse material is one part of that but often it can move beyond that,” said Sauer.
The judge sentenced Houting to three years in prison.
Once released, he’ll be under numerous conditions for 10 years, including not attending parks, pools or community centres where there may be children under the age of 16.
He’ll also be registered as a sexual offender for 20 years.
Kendall Hanson
