Redcliff man will serve five years in prison for child porn offences

By Medicine Hat News on July 3, 2024.

@MedicineHatNews

A Redcliff man has been sent to federal prison for five years for possessing and distributing child pornography.

Robin Mark Kiemele, 59, pled guilty Tuesday morning in Alberta Court of Justice at Medicine Hat, about three months after his arrest this spring.

“It’s disturbing and I sincerely hope you get help,” Justice Eric Brooks said during the sentencing, which arrived by joint submission.

Prosecutors told court that an agreed statement of facts states authorities in the U.S. were alerted when officials with the social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, reported a suspect image was uploaded via an account eventually traced by Canadian investigators to Kiemele.

It showed a naked prepubescent girl bent over a bed with an unclothed adult male pressed against her.

Medicine Hat police executed a search warrant on the room he was renting in Redcliff and seized several electronic devices.

*Graphic content warning*

They determined Kiemele had shared files on a number of social media platforms, including X and Telegram.

Investigators found a total of 900 stored images and 1,900 videos, according to prosecutors, featuring real and computer-generated images of minor males and females in distress, being penetrated and covered in bodily fluid.

“The nature of the files is at the highest end of the scale,” Crown prosecutors said while outlining aggravating factors.

An early guilty plea is a mitigating factor for Kiemele, who was assisted by duty counsel lawyer Vince Guinan who said the sentence provides his client likely access to psychiatric help.

“Ultimately there is an understanding that (my client) has significant mental dysfunction that compels this behaviour,” he said.

Kiemele, who did not address the court, has four prior convictions for similar offences.

He failed to comply with previous conditions of continuing to report to probation and a sex-offender registry as he was homeless during the COVID pandemic, Guinan told court.

Kiemele received two years in prison for possessing the images and three years for distributing them – trading them with others online – after pleading guilty to the two counts. They will be served consecutively, likely in federal institution, court heard.

He also receives a lifetime ban on attending or gaining employment at any place where minors under 16 are likely to be present, a lifetime weapons prohibition and a lifetime ban from engaging in social media or file-sharing sites.

A publication ban in the case was lifted after Justice Brooks was told that no information related to specific victims was listed in evidence or the agreed statement of facts.

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