Twenty-seven-year-old Michael Tomasik of Sudbury was sentenced to 18 months in prison today in Sudbury court, after pleading guilty to charges of possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, and luring of a child.
Tomasik was arrested in March after a combined investigation by officers of the Greater Sudbury Police Service Cyber Crime Unit and the London Police Service. Two computers seized at the man's residence were found to have child pornography images and approximately 3,574 child pornography videos.
The courtroom was cleared while the judge was shown one of the videos.
Evidence showed Tomasik had used telephone chat lines and Internet resources, such as Facebook, My Space, MSN and Yahoo Chat, to converse with young girls.
Tomasik, who has been in custody since his arrest, was investigated by a London police officer who posed as a 12-year-old girl and began an interaction with him. The accused proceeded to engage in sexual conversations with the officer, sending explicit pictures of himself, images of child pornography, and engaging in sexual conversations.
The same London officer posed as an adult woman, and engaged in conversation with Tomasik again. The defendant again sent child pornography photos to her.
Likewise, an officer of the Greater Sudbury Police Service posed as a young girl and engaged in conversation with Tomasik.
The conversation “quickly turned graphic,” said the Crown at the sentencing. Tomasik said he was “into girls her age” and tried to find out where she lived.
By sending these pictures, Tomasik re-victimized the young girls, said the Crown.
“These pictures are everywhere in the world,” she said.
The defence attorney said Tomasik, who has no prior convictions, was “deeply remorseful” and would be receptive to counselling and treatment.
“I'm very sorry for the harm that I've caused everyone,” Tomasik said.
Justice William Fitzgerald of the Ontario Court of Justice accepted a joint-submission for sentencing from the lawyers.
The judge said the charges were “very serious offences of great concern to the community.”
“Offences of this nature are becoming all too frequent,” he continued.
In addition to the concurrent sentence of 18 months for the three offences, Tomasik will have three years of probation with conditions including, mandatory counselling and treatment, no use of a computer or the Internet, random searches of his residence and a prohibition of keeping the company of youth under 14.
Tomasik will have to provide a DNA sample and have his name put on the Sex Offenders Registry. His name will be stay there for 20 years.
If he chooses, Tomasik will be able to serve his sentence in a facility that provides treatment, such as the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton, which was recommended in the joint submission.
The Ontario Correctional Institute is a medium security, adult male facility conceived, designed and built to provide classification, assessment and treatment services to male offenders.
