Warning: This story deals with child sexual abuse and may be triggering for some readers.
A Penticton businessman received a nine-month jail sentence for possessing a collection of child sexual abuse material that the judge noted was “disturbing”.
Leigh Stephen Gosse, 54, the owner of Aladdin Carpet One in Penticton, was in court on Jan. 18 to hear his fate, after having pleaded guilty early on to the charge against him.
Defence for Gosse had asked for a conditional sentence of house arrest based on a number of mitigating factors. Crown was seeking up to 15 months in jail followed by three years of probation.
The judge ended up sentencing Gosse to nine months in jail, followed by three years of probation.
When RCMP seized Gosse’s phone in 2021, they found 72 images and 35 videos that met the definition of child sexual abuse material. The judge referred to the contents as disturbing, describing one video that involved the sexual assault of a child around four or five years of age.
“He possessed very troubling material,” said the judge. “Some of the videos are aggressive and disturbing and some of them involved children at the lower end of the age spectrum.”
The psychologist who prepared a report for the court ahead of sentencing described Gosse as being a low to low-moderate risk of sexual recidivism, and that he should participate in the specialized sex offender treatment program.
Gosse was described as being addicted to pornography and that he had over time gone to more extreme material.
The judge noted that Gosse was remorseful, and understood the damage his actions had done, as well as the fact that his early guilty plea saved the court from a complex trial.
Deterrence of future crimes was one of the reasons the judge cited as going for a jail sentence over one served in the community.
“I recognize that Mr. Gosse did not take the pictures, make the videos, or things like that,” said the Judge. “But there is no market for any of that without people like him.”
Gosse will also be placed on the sexual offender registry for 10 years, along with being banned from accessing the internet outside of work or other strictly approved purposes.
If you have information about child sexual exploitation, visit the Cybertip Canada website.
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