Keith Fraser, Vancouver, B.C. (National Post) – A Vancouver man who had nearly 27,000 images of child pornography on his computer and who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy has been sentenced to three years, three months in jail.
In December, Warren Robert Allen, 53, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child porn for the purpose of distribution and one count of sexual assault.
Allen was arrested in May 2010 during a police crackdown on child pornography that resulted in more than 200 charges being laid and 57 arrests in Canada and overseas.
When police executed a search warrant on Allen’s Vancouver apartment, they found 840,000 images on his computer.
A review of just 200,000 of those images revealed 27,000 images of children under the age of five being sexually abused.
The vast majority of the child porn images were at the “extreme” end of child pornography, the court heard.
Allen shared his collection of child porn with others on the Internet but blamed his crime on the disinhibiting effects of crystal methamphetamines.
The sexual assault victim, who can only be identified by the initials K.R. due to a publication ban, was discovered after police conducted an analysis of the computer and found that Allen had chatted with the boy and lured him to his apartment.
Allen, who is HIV-positive, arranged to have an HIV-positive male friend pick up the boy and bring him to Allen’s West End apartment, where the two men sexually assaulted the youth in September 2009.
Later, Allen bragged about the “tag-team” sexual assault on a chat line.
In imposing sentence on him Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein said Allen targeted a “troubled, susceptible” boy and said his conduct was “highly reprehensible and his moral blameworthiness was high.”
The mitigating factors in the case included that Allen has no prior criminal record and is a “very intelligent, high-functioning and high-achieving” man, said the judge.
She noted that Allen served as an RCMP officer in Alberta from 1978 to 1984, before leaving to get his law degree from Queen’s University.
The judge said that the sentencing principles of denunciation and deterrent were paramount but added she couldn’t overlook Allen’s prospects for rehabilitation.
Allen was sentenced to 18 months in jail for the sexual assault and two years jail for the child pornography offence, to be served consecutively.
He got three months reduced from his sentence due to pre-sentence custody, giving him a sentence of three years, three months.
The Crown had called for a sentence of seven to 10 years in jail with the defence arguing for two to 2 1/2 years in prison.
[Source]
Deepthroat,
Allow me a rejoinder.
I am not lumping even the most corrupt RCMP officer with an HIV positive child rapist.
I am however responding to LP’s complaint that the media are on some sort of unjustified bent against the RCMP.
You have watched the news over the past few decades, right?
You have seen nothing but molifying lies passed off as promises to clean up the force, right?
You do agree that 35 million Canadians have a vested interest in RCMP reform, and not simply tabloid journalism, right?
And for the 90% of good cops within the force, they get my respect, admiration, and heartfelt thanks.
You have to remember problemchild that the media are more prone to publish unconfirmed wrongdoings of the RCMP than they are any positive stories such as the officers in the RCMP do on a daily basis. This negativity sells newspapers but hardly does anything to truly inform the public. What portion of the 3 million calls for service answered by officers every year get reported upon?
Cases in point such as have been reiterated in this forum of officers in Northern Alberta being shot by a criminal in an ambush. No press coverage of note. One officer charged with assaulting someone in Northern Alberta, very wide coverage.
The recent officer from North Vancouver BC charged with assault and accused of excessive force, wide initial coverage. A stay of proceedings on the charge due to lies from the accuser, very little coverage or even follow up by the media who relentlessly pursue the negative if the roles were reversed.
Also it behooves you to realize that individuals are ultimately responsible for their actions, not non participating individuals unassociated with any event.
Therefore your statement that the RCMP discredits itself should be prefaced by some RCMP officers discredit to the organization but mostly themselves. Just as many officers bring accolades and credit to their bravery or investigative acumen would you broad brush every officer with such luminous qualities?
I hardly think that the 26,000 employees scattered over 750 offices in the country can be judged by the actions of some individuals.
lp:
The media doesn’t need to discredit the RCMP.
The RCMP discredit themselves
Serious Crimes; I would like to know when they catch someone like this, does anyone think of checking those children with the many posters posted, say in Wal Mart of children missing and if those kids are still even alive?
Ya this is a serious offense unjust, but is it fair to report in this way? The RCMP is what we do not what we are until we are in the grave. Would it make any sense if he was a former doctor? A former real estate mogul? Like I said it was 27 years ago and he was only a member for 6 years. Do you think that kind of tells you that he was not suited for the RCMP? So he left or we got rid of him. Same thing.
You guess its for life? You guess wrong.
Linda, look at the seriousness of the issue. When you become an RCMP member I guess it’s for life, not so I guess for a Lawyer.
The RCMP have been getting away with so much for so long I guess it’s time for them to see the writing on the wall and to change.
For whatever reasons that part is still met with much resistance.
As a member this kind of crap really gets my goat. The guy was in the RCMP like 27 years ago for a grand total of what 6 years? Then he gets his law degree and is then a lawyer I guess. So why does it not say he is an ex lawyer? Why doesn’t it say an ex male lawyer? Maybe he was just unemployed for the last 26 years.
I call this yellow journalism. A deliberate campaign by the media to discredit the RCMP. Hey, maybe we told this guy to get lost. Even that would be more accurate and relevant than the ex RCMP handle. With a lot of people just reading headlines and not the story, if it is there even, it is a subtle campaign to discredit us.