Sentencing arguments were heard today for a Nanaimo man who’s pleaded guilty to possessing child porn.
In an agreed statement of facts, the court heard 63-year-old William Kreibom had child porn on his cell phone, computer and USB drive.
Police seized them during a search on March 12, 2019, of his mother’s north Nanaimo home where he then lived.
Of the 8,100 pictures and videos on his USB drive, over 90 percent were child porn.
They showed adults sexually assaulting children between the ages of 3 and 9.
There were also more than 1,000 graphic child porn images on his cell phone and 29 similar images on his computer.
The National Center of Exploited and Missing Children in the U.S. first alerted Canadian authorities to child porn being stored and uploaded by Canadian IP addresses in 2015. Further investigation linked them back to Nanaimo and Kreibom’s house.
Kreibom has no criminal record.
The Crown is asking for a one-year jail sentence with 18 months of probation and a DNA order for the sex offender’s registry.
His lawyer Brian Sutton is asking for the same terms but a six-month jail sentence.
Sutton says there is no indication that Kreibom has impacted any child around him and Kreibom says he never has.
Kreibom’s siblings and his daughter sent reference letters to the court.
His adult daughter who now lives in Alberta pleaded with the judge in her letter to not send her father to jail saying he would not do anything to a child and he never did anything to me. She stated she loves him very much and he was a great dad.
The court heard the accused has been living at his mother’s home for 20 years following a divorce with his wife.
Sutton said since the charges have been laid his client’s been shunned from his small number of friends and he’s been fired from his janitorial job.
Sutton also says Kreibom has cross-dressed most of his life because he had difficulty being accepted and he found when he cross-dressed women would talk to him.
Sutton says counselling has given Kreibom insight into what he’s done wrong.
When given the opportunity Kreibom addressed the court. He said “I was not aware I was reoffending the children. I rehurt the children and that was wrong. I haven’t been on the computer and I feel better about it because it was getting addictive. My apologies to the children and everyone.”
The judge will hand down her decision next week.
Once released Kreibom’s lawyer says he plans to relocate to Alberta where he’ll live with her daughter and his fiance.
In 2019 Nanaimo RCMP reported there was an increase in child porn cases in the region.
Kendall Hanson
