SELECTED CASE LAW
ALBERTA:
In 2013 ABPB 66 Mr. A, a 40-year-old man, pleaded guilty to voyeurism for surreptitiously video-taping his 15-year-old step-daughter getting dressed on two occasions. Mr. A was also found guilty of voyeurism with the intent to possess child pornography. He hid his cellphone in the victim’s bedroom in a plastic box with a hole in it in order to secretly film her. He initially denied the filming was for a sexual purpose, telling his wife and his step-daughter he was trying to film the dog, and later told the police he was trying to view “possible apparitions” in his step-daughter’s room. Two videos were located on Mr. A’s phone’s SD card, one of which was hidden by a “KeepSafe” app so it would not display in the normal gallery of the phone. Mr. A was sentenced to five months’ incarceration, two years’ probation, and was ordered not to possess or use any electronic equipment capable of capturing a digital image.
In an unreported case noted in 2013 ABPC 66, Mr. R was convicted of making and possession child pornography, and voyeurism.
One of the victims was Mr. R’s niece, and the other was a girl he coached on a hockey team. He took surreptitious photos of the girls while they were sleeping in a way that was described by the court as “very perverse.” He later printed copies of the photos on a school printer and left them for other people to discover. He was also found to have a digital camera with 284 pictures and 92 video clips of young girls’ breasts and groin areas who appeared to be asleep or unconscious. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Criminal Offence(s): Child Pornography Offences ; Voyeurism