A British Columbia man convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography will serve no jail time after a judge described his illegal collection as "relatively modest" and ordered a conditional sentence instead.
Mark Keenan, 54, pleaded guilty in Kelowna provincial court and was sentenced on May 2 to two years less a day under house arrest, followed by a year of probation, according to CTV News. His case stems from a 2018 RCMP search that uncovered six explicit images involving boys aged nine to 16 on Keenan's devices, after authorities were alerted to his Tumblr activity.
While the court acknowledged one of the images showed mutual contact between an adult and a child's genitals, Judge Andrew Tam said the collection's small size, compared to cases involving hundreds or thousands of files, set it apart.
"Although there is no strict mathematical relationship between the size of the collection and the length (or indeed type) of sentence, the size of a collection has often been held to be an aggravating factor," Tam wrote. "It stands to reason then that a modest collection, while not a mitigating factor, could nevertheless distinguish it from other cases."
Keenan claimed he was not sexually attracted to minors and said he had been trying to expose predators by running a fake Tumblr account. However, Tam rejected this, citing Keenan's yearlong possession of the files and explicit chats where he appeared to express genuine interest in children.
One message, recorded during police questioning, quoted Keenan saying, "I mean, in a way, it's hard not to be," when asked if he was aroused by the content.
Despite the court's conclusion that Keenan's actions were for personal gratification, his lack of criminal history, guilty plea and community support contributed to the non-custodial sentence. He must now remain under house arrest for 18 months, adhere to a 6 p.m. curfew for the remainder and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement.
