Child Pornography Charges

Lawyers for Child Pornography Charges 

Child Pornography offences are extremely serious charges and often have monstrous social stigma attached. Police employ various investigative techniques to pursue these types of criminal charges. These charges often involve complicated search warrants and seizures of your electronic devices.  

Even if you are never convicted of these offences; the damage done to your reputation, career, and family can be irrevocable. 

Child Pornography Offences:

“Child pornography” refers to film, video, or other visual representations that depicts a person under the age of 18 engaged in explicit sexual activity. 

Child pornography comes in many forms, all of which carry serious penalties. These can include: photos, videos, artwork or even a story if it contains the depiction of an individual under the age of 18 involved in a sexual act. Child pornography also includes explicit drawings or cartoon drawings of children. 

A “person” is broadly defined to include both real and fictional human beings. The consequences of such a broad definition is that “making” child pornography can include the depiction of sexual acts of imaginary children. This definition also captures people who may not be under 18 years of age, but are depicted as being under 18 years of age. 

There are three main categories of child pornography offences. These include:

• Possessing child pornography 
• Distributing child pornography 
• Making child pornography 

Each of these offences have specific criteria that a Crown Prosecutor is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. 

Possession child pornography means knowingly having control over the obscene material. This offence usually turns on whether or not you actually had the child pornography in your possession. This offence also commonly involves an assessment of the police actions in how they obtained the evidence against you. These charges require a criminal defence lawyer with experience in challenging search warrants and advancing Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms arguments. 

Distributing child pornography involves making the material available to others – usually through online file sharing. This is a complex criminal offence that can be made out simply by having the material on your device and is available for file-sharing with others. These offences commonly involve lengthy and complicated police investigations that requires the expertise of an experienced criminal defence lawyer. 

Making child pornography is one of the most serious forms of charges and means making, printing, publishing or possessing the material for the purpose of publication. The Crown will have to prove that you had the actual intent of making child pornography for you to be convicted. 

Charges for Luring a Child

The offence of luring a child is often associated with one of the above charges. This offence involves the communication with a child through electronic means. Additionally, the communication must be for the purpose of committing another offence such as child pornography, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, and other sexual acts. 

These types of charges are extremely complex and may have long lasting impacts on you as a result of the stigma associated with these types of charges. The lawyers at Davidson Gregory will ensure every possible defence for you is explored. 

Punishment for Child Pornography Offences

All four categories of child pornography offences involve mandatory minimum punishments of imprisonment and lengthy maximum sentences of up to 14 years in prison. 

Mandatory minimum sentences are often the subject of constitutional challenges. The team at Davidson Gregory can advise you regarding the status of your charges and whether any mandatory minimums are applicable to you. 

A conviction for one or more of these offences will also result in an order under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act, designating you as a registered sex offender.