Child-porn collector gets four years
Judge says numerous victim-impact statements showed need for strong denunciation for Donald Ashley MacPherson, 67, for possessing, accessing illicit images and videos online
Editor’s note: The defendant in this court report and the journalist covering the case share the same first and last names, but they aren’t related or connected in any way.
Despite a Fredericton man’s newfound insight into the harm his child-porn offences caused, a four-year prison term was necessary to denounce his crimes given his history, a judge said Wednesday.
Donald Ashley MacPherson, 67, had hoped for a two-year prison sentence for offences of possessing and accessing child pornography two years ago, to which he’d pleaded guilty late last year.
But in rendering her decision on sentence Wednesday, the judge ruled the severity of the crimes, the ongoing harm such material causes to the children victimized in its creation and MacPherson’s own history with sex-related offences required the court to impose the longer term being sought by the Crown.