A Princeton man has been sentenced to 21 months for child pornography crimes dating back to as far as 2003.
Donald William Mare pled guilty to making or publishing child pornography, possession of child pornography and secretly observing/recording nudity in a private place. Judge Gale Sinclair sentenced Mare 15 months on the child pornography charges and an additional six months for the voyeurism charge.
“I’m mystified how this behaviour occurred,” said Sinclair.
On Aug. 12, 2009, Mare had two guests stay over at his home. When he left for work in the morning one of the guests uncovered a piece of paper in his computer room that had a naked women posing with a different face superimposed on her body. The guests informed RCMP of what they found.
Const. Bradley Matchim appeared in court on Monday providing the judge with about eight binders of photographs where Mare had essentially cut and paste photos of his victims heads onto pornographic images, some of women performing sexual acts.
Matchim said some of the photos had the victims heads and Mare’s head superimposed onto the same pornographic image.
Amongst the evidence shown in court at the sentencing was a tin that contained underwear that was owned by a victim.
RCMP had also found a ziplock containing pubic hair, which Mare told them was his own along with his chest hair, but provided no reason as to why he had it.
The court heard Mare confessed to RCMP that he was “pissed off” at the victim and had done this in revenge and he also used the pornographic images he created with his victims’ head on them to masterbate to.
Defence lawyer James Pennington said Mare, who is now 59-years-old, was in court to “man up to what happened.” Mare stood up to address the court, tearing up as he spoke.
“What I did was shameful and repulsive,” said Mare. “There is no excuse for what I have done. I’m deeply, deeply sorry for what I have done.”
Crown counsel Catherine Crockett asked the court for a minimum 12 month and maximum two year sentence for the “serious breach of trust.” She provided the court a dated victim impact statement and said an attempt had been made to reach out to the victim to provide an update.
“She refused to come to the phone and was so upset she had to leave work halfway through the day. She has become increasingly depressed and distancing herself from friends and family,” said Crockett.
Mare had previously been the editor of the Similkameen Spotlight and the court heard he was dismissed for viewing inappropriate content on his computer.
Once released from jail, Mare will be under a number of conditions including no contact with the victims, no access to Internet except as it relates directly for employment, not to possess pornographic images or cameras or video recording equipment and cannot attend public parks, schools or places where people under the age of 16 are likely to be. Mare will also be on the sexual offender registration for 10 years.
Kristi Patton - Penticton Western News