A Vancouver Island man found with 8,300 child pornography images on his computer was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment by a Nanaimo Provincial Court judge Aug. 18.
William Herbert Erich Kreibom pleaded guilty to one of two charges against him for possession of the images between March 2018 and March 2019.
Some images were of children as young as two or three.
“I find that the nature of the collection to be extremely aggravating,” Judge Karen Whonnock said. “The majority of the images were either non-penetrative or penetrative and some images involved potential sadism. These images are very repulsive, and represent a sickening horror and violent acts of sexual abuse of children.”
Whonnock’s decision said the RCMP, in conjunction with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and British Columbia Integrated Child Exploitation Unit (BC ICE), spoke with Kreibom in 2015 about the illegality of child pornography.
RCMP submitted charges for approval of possession of distribution of child pornography but the Crown decline to proceed.
In June 2018, BC ICE received third-hand information Kreibom admitted on his Facebook profile that he was a “closet pedophile.”
RCMP spoke with him and he said, “He used to have sexual urges towards children but has moved past this,” the decision said.
Kreibom told police he learned his lesson from the previous RCMP investigation in 2015 and had not been in the possession of child pornography since.
NCMEC received information that an image of child pornography was uploaded on Sept. 12, 2018, an image traced to Kreibom.
On March 12, 2019, Nanaimo RCMP executed a search warrant, seizing a laptop, a cell phone and multiple electronic storage devices.
“Mr. Kreibom admitted that having images of children is wrong. He said that the images pop up when he looked for regular pornography,” the decision said. “Mr. Kreibom stated that he looked at the images of child pornography ‘out of curiosity’ but would never ‘use a kid that way.’ Mr. Kreibom stated that ‘if he ever saw an adult doing that to a kid, he would stop it and beat up the adult.’ Mr. Kreibom stated he did not know why he holds onto the images and that it is stupid. Mr. Kreibom stated to the police that he is just a ‘lonely old cross-dressing man.’”
Kreibom has attended the Upper Island Sex Offender Program.
His sentence includes a 20-year ban on being around anyone under 16 and not use the Internet for accessing illegal content.
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