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A man from Marshall has pleaded guilty to over 40 child pornography charges.
Shane Dale Pattison, 27, entered guilty pleas at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on Friday.
He faced 42 charges of possessing and distributing child porn.
Pattison was previously given one of the longest sentences in Saskatchewan history for collecting child porn in 2012.
He was arrested again when officers found him viewing child pornography at a halfway house while on statutory release in 2016.
He was eventually found to have amassed some 4,000 unique files on a laptop and various mobile devices, and was found to have been sharing the images with others using messaging apps and photo hosting websites.
Detective Sgt. Darren Parisien with the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation unit said Pattison’s was one of the worst child pornography collections he’s seen.
“There was a lot of material there. Very much geared toward torture and bondage and extreme violence towards very young children – as young as infants and toddlers,” he said.
Over 1300 investigations have been opened based on the images Pattison collected, with police in Canada and the U.S. seeking to identify victims in the images, as well as the people Pattison was sharing them with.
During Friday’s hearing, court heard that Pattison says he can’t control himself when he’s got access to a device connected to the Internet.
Court also learned that Pattison never got any psychological treatment during his first prison term. Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle explained that the system doesn’t seem to view child porn collectors in the same light as offenders who directly participate in sexually abusing children. As such, Pattison didn’t qualify for mental health treatment while he was inside.
“If that’s shocking to members of the public, join the club, because I was shocked as well when I heard that. I thought that this was a young man who likely needed some psychological assistance,” Pfefferle said.
Pfefferle said he expected to make a joint submission with the Crown when the case comes back to court in July. He said he expected they’d be asking a judge for a 7-year sentence.
However, the Crown indicated they would be going over the case with an eye to seeking a long-term or dangerous offender designation, which could open the door to a longer prison term or ongoing monitoring and conditions after Pattison is released from custody.