November 19th, 2024

Two years jail, two years probation for local man convicted of child porn possession, distribution

By Jeremy Appel on November 23, 2018.


jappel@medicinehatnews.com
@MHNJeremyAppel

A man guilty of possessing and distributing child pornography was sentenced at Medicine Hat Provincial Court to two years minus one day in jail followed by two years probation.

Stefan Mogck, 37, appeared in person Thursday, closing his eyes for extended periods of time as special prosecutor Carolyn Ayre read out the agreed statement of facts.

The sentence, which was a joint submission from Ayre and defence lawyer Greg Craven, will have Mogck serve his time in a provincial facility, allowing him to go on probation when he gets out.

Police seized numerous items when they searched Mogck’s residence, including two computers and a USB drive that were found to have child porn on them and were given up as civil forfeiture.

“What about my anime?” asked Mogck from behind the dock in his high-pitched voice, referring to VHS tapes seized from him during the investigation he said contain Japanese cartoons he recorded from TV.

Krinke agreed to return those tapes to his possession.

As conditions of the probation order, Mogck must undergo counselling and provide proof of his attendance to his probation officer.

He’s also prohibited from going anywhere people under the age of 16 could be, such as parks, schools, daycares or community centres.

Craven cited Mogck’s lack of a prior criminal record, his poor health, his dependence on AISH since 1999 and that he lives with his grandmother as mitigating factors.

According to the statement of facts, the Southern Alberta Internet Child Exploitation Unit, led by Det. Dean Jacobs of the Calgary police, was investigating child pornography on the Nutella peer-to-peer network in early 2015.

Jacobs identified an IP address that had downloaded child pornography beginning in February 2015.

He connected to the computer on Feb. 9, 2015, downloading 1,014 files that were identified as child porn, which included images of children as young as two years old.

Ayre provided Judge Gordon Krinke with a sealed envelope, which included some of the images.

Jacobs tracked the IP address to a Shaw account in Medicine Hat. The company identified the address as belonging to Mogck.

The detective obtained a search warrant for Mogck’s residence, which was executed Jan. 13, 2016.

In total, police found 13,351 images, videos and links on Mogck’s computers and USB drive.

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