Porn | Child Porn Sentence Delayed To October

MONCTON - Sentencing for a Moncton man who pleaded guilty to possessing millions of images of child abuse and child porn has been delayed.

Douglas Hugh Stewart, 51, has been in custody since an investigation into the online trading of child sex-abuse images led to his arrest on March 23.

When he was arrested, police found millions of child sex-abuse images and videos in his possession and RCMP believe the seizure to be the largest in Canadian history.

Given the scope of the crime and the implications of Stewart's guilty plea, Crown prosecutor Karen Lee Lamrock and defence counsel Maurice Blanchard jointly invoked a rarely used section of the Criminal Code of Canada to ask the provincial court to order a psychiatric report on Stewart.

The judge agreed to the request, with the report to focus on whether Stewart is a pedophile, on his likelihood to reoffend and his risk, if any, to the rest of society.

But at Stewart's sentencing on Friday, the report wasn't ready so the matter had to be adjourned until the afternoon of Oct. 28.

Despite that joint request for the psychiatric report, both lawyers informed the court during an earlier appearance that they will not be offering a joint submission on sentencing, suggesting the two sides will present diverging arguments on what constitutes a proper sentence for the unprecedented case.

The RCMP in New Brunswick says the possession and distribution of child-porn images is rampant.

This particular case broke open shortly after 7 a.m. on March 23 when police officers simultaneously executed search warrants at five residences in Moncton, Havelock, Grand Bay-Westfield, Dumfries and Petit-Rocher-Ouest. During the searches, investigators seized a number of computers and related equipment. Once they entered Stewart's residence, police found millions of child sex-abuse images.