A Red Deer man whose sex crime victims were as young as three years old should go to prison for 12 years, said a Crown prosecutor on Wednesday.
Stuart Peter Hunt, 55, previously pleaded guilty to 10 child exploitation-related crimes and was in Red Deer provincial court for sentencing.
Special Crown prosecutor Donna Spaner said Hunt’s victims dating back many years included a three-year-old at his wife’s daycare, 10- and 13-year-old family friends and more recently a child was six or seven when the sexual touching began.
Hunt pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual interference, two counts of invitation to sexual touching and sexual assault related to incidents involving sexually touching his young victim’s genitals in incidents dating back to the late 1990s. He also pleaded guilty to breaching a court order after sending an apology letter to a victim’s family.
Spaner said Hunt was a predator targeting young children over two decades.
“This was not impulsive behaviour. His actions were planned and deliberate.”
Hunt also pleaded guilty to four child pornography-related charges in relation to an obsession that began as early as 1997 when he first got on the internet.
Spaner said Hunt used the Dark Web to find child pornography, covering his tracks with encryption technology.
He even took photos of a young relative without him knowing and shared the images online with other pedophiles.
When investigators went through Hunt’s cellphone they found 2,164 child pornography images and 16 videos.
About 3,800 child porn images and 220 videos were found on a pair of computers and a hard drive.
Spaner said the images were “horrifically disturbing” and featured toddlers being sexually assaulted.
“A number of these young children are caged and restrained,” Spaner told Judge Jim Glass.
Among the depraved finds on Hunt’s computers was a detailed 264-page manual showing child predators how to best exploit children.
Hunt was caught after three different internet-based applications reported illegal uploads of child pornography to the cyber tipline of the United States Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It passed on information to Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s child exploitation investigators.
Hunt was identified and arrested last January and charged with child porn offences. After investigators interviewed victims, he was re-arrested in February and charged with sexual exploitation offences.
Defence lawyer Dan Wilson asked the judge for a 10-year sentence. Hunt, who had no prior criminal record, pleaded guilty at the earliest possible time and voluntarily gave police information about his crimes, he said.
Hunt apologized in court for his crimes. Reading from a letter, he said he was “extremely ashamed and remorseful.
“If I could turn back time and not do what I did, I would,” he said in a trembling voice.
He said he was sorry for the pain he caused and hoped his victims would get any help they need.
“I hope each of you can recover from what was done to you.”
Judge Glass said he wanted more time to consider submissions and would sentence Hunt Nov. 26.