Former RCMP officer Aiden Pratchett leaves court after his trial. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
An RCMP officer found guilty of child pornography charges has been sentenced to 1 year in prison and 3 years probation.
Aiden Pratchett was taken away in handcuffs Friday afternoon after a judge handed down the sentence in a Saskatoon courtroom.
The former RCMP Constable had been found guilty of accessing and possessing child pornography while he was stationed as an RCMP officer in Fond du Lac in 2014.
The RCMP initially suspended Pratchett the day after investigators seized his devices in October 2014 as part of a child porn investigation.
He was removed from Fond du Lac after charges were laid two months later and has since lost his job with the RCMP
The judge who handed out the sentence says he agreed with the Crown’s position that there are several victims to this crime.
He says Aiden Pratchett was in a position of power and caused damage to the police force he represented in addition to the anonymous child victims.
Crown prosecutors argued for a one year sentence.
“It was the appropriate sentence,” says Crown Prosecutor Michael Segu.
Segu also mentioned that accessing and possessing child pornography is just as heinous as producing child porn.
“It’s just the other side of the coin,” says the crown prosecutor. “There are many Mr. Pratchett’s out there that for whatever reason take gratification in seeing children be sexually assaulted and without that demand the need to victimize children would certainly be lessened.”
Since Pratchett was found guilty he provided investigators with passwords to all of his devices.
Neither crown or defense lawyers were willing to speculate if any more charges could be laid after police investigate these devices further.