Kip Gaudry, the former director of engineering for the Municipality of Delta, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for possessing thousands of images and movies of child pornography.
Gaudry pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing child pornography in November. A judge delivered his sentence in Surrey Provincial Court on Thursday (Jan. 13) afternoon.
In imposing his sentence, the judge said he had to consider the specific nature of the child pornography found on both home and work computers. Much of it involved extremely young children – even babies – between the ages of one and five years old being abused by adult men.
While all child pornography is bad, the judge said, the explicit images found in Gaudry's possession was "toward the more horrible end of the scale."
As well, Gaudry's prior convictions were taken into account.
Under his full legal name of Cleo Faust Gaudry, he pleaded guilty in 1995 to numerous counts of sexual assault and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years. The crimes were committed while he was working in the District of Houston, a small community in northwestern B.C. At the time, a Houston newspaper quoted a senior RCMP officer as saying that some of the charges involved young people.
Court heard Thursday that within 18 months of serving that sentence, Gaudry was accessing child pornography online.
In March 2009, Gaudry quit as Delta's director of engineering after police searched his home in North Delta and his office at municipal hall, seizing several computers and hard drives. Ten thousand still images and more than 300 movies involving child pornography were found.
Investigators also discovered Gaudry, now a White Rock resident, had installed special software in an attempt to hide his activities.
Wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket, the bespectacled Gaudry sat calmly while the sentence was read.
He was also ordered to serve three years probation following his jail time, is not permitted any drug or alcohol use, must have no contact with children under 18, cannot possess a computer or cellphone that can access the Internet and must submit a DNA sample.
In delivering the sentence, the judge acknowledged Gaudry, 59, is a competent and intelligent man who had overcome a "horrific" childhood himself, which included abuse and assault.
The Crown was seeking a sentence of between 12 and 18 months, while defence sought a six-month sentence. The second count he was facing, accessing child pornography, was stayed.
Gaudry is also facing trial on an unrelated charge of indecent assault on a female in connection with a 1973 incident in Winnipeg.
- with files from Dan Ferguson