Another man will spend a year in jail after attempting to enter Canada with child pornography in his possession.
Shane Edward Westerfeld was driving to Regina on March 31 when he was crossing the border into Canada at the North Portal port of entry. During an investigation into his computer a series of images involving a nude female child, estimated to be about eight years old, were found by Canadian Border Services Agency personnel. They identified the material as child pornography and sent the information away to the Internet Child Exploitation unit for a report and arrested Westerfeld, who appeared in custody during provincial court proceedings in Estevan on Monday. After receiving counsel through Legal Aid, he pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing child pornography.
The Crown prosecutor noted the ICE report found about 1,000 images that were considered illegal and the American citizen admitted to downloading the material on his smartphone and transferring the images to his computer.
Westerfeld agreed to the forfeiture of his computer as part of the sentence, as both the defence and Crown presented presiding Judge Karl Bazin with a joint submission for a 12-month jail term. Westerfeld will spend the next 20 years on the Canadian Sex Offender Registry and must surrender a DNA sample along with his incarceration.
In other court proceedings, Tyler Spencer made his first appearance before the courts after having been charged with four counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm as well as an impaired driving charge.
The charges stem from Jan. 31, following a single vehicle rollover south of Estevan that left all five occupants of the vehicle injured. Information provided by the Estevan Police Service after the incident noted that four people were treated for injuries in Estevan, while a fifth individual was evacuated by STARS air ambulance and sent to Regina in critical but stable condition.
The matter was adjourned until April 28.
