By EverythingGP staff

Court

Court update: Sentencing in one child pornography case, trial order in another, Fox Creek AMBER Alert case resolved

Nov 26, 2021 | 6:00 AM

Two-year sentence in Child pornography case

Alberta Justice says one of two Grande Prairie men charged in a child pornography arrest in April has been given a two-year jail term.

Stedson McDonald pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in Grande Prairie court. Another charge of distributing child pornography was withdrawn.

McDonald was given the sentence on November 22.

He was one of two people arrested in Grande Prairie, and 24 across Alberta, by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit in the first three months of 2021.

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ALERT said at the time that the arrests came after it saw a 40 per cent increase in case referrals in 2020 and that they came after referrals from the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre.

The other Grande Prairie man charged, Curt Backlund, has a preliminary hearing date set for March 8, 2022.

Trial ordered in another child pornography case

Alberta Justice says a Grande Prairie man arrested in a child pornography bust in 2020 has been ordered to stand trial.

Jesse Young is facing 19 charges, including multiple counts of luring a child, sexual counsel of a child, and making child pornography.

Trial dates have not yet been set.

He was one of 18 men from across Alberta, two of them from Grande Prairie, charged between May 20 and June 23, 2020, after referrals from the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre.

ALERT said at the time the charges were related to online child sexual exploitation.

A warrant remains out for the second Grande Prairie man charged, Anas Khatib, after he failed to show up for a scheduled court appearance in June of this year.

Second accused in Fox Creek AMBER Alert given house arrest after guilty pleas

A man charged after three kids were taken from a Fox Creek home has been given an 18-month conditional sentence order.

D’artangan Dirk Pool pleaded guilty to charges of assault, uttering threats, and disguised with intent. Five other charges were withdrawn.

These sentences are served in the community with conditions attached. Pool was due to stand trial November 22 to 30.

He and the children’s mother, Charmaine Annette Darnel, were arrested after three kids were taken from a Fox Creek home around 1:30 a.m. June 1, 2019.

The children and Darnel were later found in a vehicle near Sylvan Lake. The kids were not hurt.

She was later given a suspended sentence and two years probation after pleading guilty to a charge of housebreaking with intent.