Afotimber A King’s Bench judge acquitted Michael Richard Montford Sutton of all charges last month after a trial at Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench.Article content
A Saskatoon King’s Bench judge ruled that while a Saskatoon man had child abuse images on one of his electronic devices, the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly possessed the images and made them available.
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In a decision last month, Justice John Morrall acquitted Michael Richard Montford Sutton of one count of making child pornography available and two counts of possession of child pornography.
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Sutton, 32, was charged in August 2022, but the case dates back to Feb. 13, 2022 when the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children got a report from an online messaging platform called Discord.
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The company reported a user uploaded 10 suspected child abuse images to its system, the decision states.
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Investigators traced the user’s IP address to a basement suite in the Greystone Heights neighbourhood that Sutton was sharing with another person. Police seized a number of electronic devices and found two images of child abuse/exploitation while forensically searching one of Sutton’s devices.
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During his trial, officers testified the images were “pagefiles” that could have been present without Sutton’s knowledge. They said the images could have been downloaded unknowingly, as they might have been part of a larger number of downloaded images.
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“It is reasonably possible that Mr. Sutton saw the images and immediately deleted them,” he wrote.
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Morrall also found the Crown failed to prove the accused was knowingly uploading the illegal images to make them available for others to view. He said the Crown presented no evidence that showed Sutton had repeatedly looked at or uploaded the images.
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“It is reasonably possible that Mr. Sutton was uploading these files without knowing their contents,” Morrall concluded.
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“There was no persistent pattern of behaviour where I could draw the inference, had I more information about Discord, that it would be unreasonable to upload something to a program where an individual did not know the content of the photos and other files.”
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Sutton did not testify at his trial and the defence did not present any other evidence.
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Change in terminology
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Last month, the Criminal Code of Canada was amended to replace the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse and exploitation material” after Bill C-291 was passed in October 2024.