CALGARY — A Calgary judge has sentenced a man who distributed and possessed child pornography to three years in a federal penitentiary.
Giuseppe Antonio Secreti, 34, pleaded guilty to charges of distributing and possessing child pornography.
He was arrested in May 2008, after a police raid on his northeast Calgary home uncovered a massive pornography collection on his computer.
Of the 374,238 images, 5,316 depicted children either posing naked or being sexually abused.
Secreti also had 49 child porn videos among his collection of 1,676 smut flicks.
Justice Ged Hawco said the violation of the children was “disturbing, degrading and abusive.”
“It is so sad to think of what will become of those young girls, both mentally and physically,” he said.
Hawco said Secreti’s involvement in the dissemination of child pornography perpetuated the sexual abuse of girls and boys.
“By virtue of your participation ... you promote and encourage the sexual degradation of those children,” he said.
“Children are used and abused in the making of child pornography,” said Hawco.
“The market is fuelled by those who seek to possess it.”
Crown prosecutor Jenny Rees and defence counsel Tonii Roulston had agreed on a two-year term based on Secreti’s guilty plea and prior similar cases.
But Hawco said those cases didn’t adequately reflect the need to deter such criminal behaviour.
“With the greatest of respect ... they have been too lenient with respect to this offence,” he said, of his fellow judges.
“I have given the joint submission very serious consideration but I am simply not able to accept it,” Hawco said.