Former CCDA director gets 90 days for accessing child porn

By ALEX McCUAIG Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on June 23, 2021.

amccuaig@medicinehatnews.com

The former executive director of a city business improvement agency was sentenced to 90 days jail on Tuesday at Medicine Hat Provincial Court, for accessing child pornography.

“I’m truly regretful,” said Wayne Smith to the court during his sentencing. “Nothing like this will ever happen again.”

Smith was charged in 2019 after police received two CyberTipLine reports from Google in late 2018, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Those reports led police to track down the source to Smith with a search warrant executed for his home on June 20, 2019.

He was subsequently arrested and charged.

When presented with the search warrant, Smith started to cry and told police, “I’m a guy. I watch porn,” according to the agreed facts.

The offence dates of what was described to the court as a “relatively small collection” of child pornography consisting of several dozen unique images range from March 13, 2015 to the day of his arrest.

The News reported in 2015 the time of the first offence date Smith was the same as the one in which he was dismissed from his role as executive director of the City Centre Development Agency.

That came after a tumultuous period Smith had in his role, which saw complaints of sexual harassment made against staff at the CCDA-run Monarch Theatre.

Those complaints were eventually found to be unsubstantiated by a third-party report commissioned by the CCDA during Smith’s tenure.

In addition to the relatively few number of images, defence lawyer Greg White said Smith was suffering from symptoms of PTSD from his service in the British Army, having been stationed in Northern Ireland and Cyprus where he witnessed extreme violence and death at the time of the offences.

“In the depths of his most difficult times, he fell into a deep depression,” said White, who also told the court that Smith also lost two step-sons during the offence dates.

Judge Gordon Krinke told the court he accepted the mitigating factors but told Smith, “you have to go to jail.”

Smith will be allowed to serve his time on weekends.

He was also sentenced to two-years probation in which he must attend counselling. For five years, Smith will also be extremely restricted in having any contact with anyone 16 years old or younger, is required to provide a DNA sample and will be listed on the sex offender registry for the next decade.

17
-16