An American truck driver caught trying to cross into the Yukon with child pornography has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Aaron Finn, 56, pleaded guilty to one count of importing child pornography.
Finn was on his way south after making a run to Alaska when he was stopped with his truck and trailer at the Beaver Creek border crossing.
During a routine inspection, a border agent noted that Finn had travelled extensively to the Philippines and other Asian countries notorious for sex tourism. That prompted a search of the two laptop computers Finn had with him.
After finding nude photos of Finn with a “very young looking Filipina girl” the agent confiscated the laptops and handed them over to the RCMP.
A forensic examination of the computers uncovered a trove of illicit photos, videos and archived web pages containing child pornography.
In total there were 100 images and seven videos found on the laptops.
While the majority of them were of children posing, masturbating and engaging in sexual activity with both children and adult men, at least one image depicted bestiality. The ages of the children appear to range from 12 to as young as one year old.
“There apparently were also other images of a male believed to be Mr. Finn engaged in sexual acts with young-looking teen Asian girls,” said Judge John Faulkner in his decision. “However, the age of these females cannot be determined with precision, and, as such, it cannot be proved that these images constitute child pornography,”
In a pre-sentencing report, Finn told a probation officer that he was in a relationship with a 19-year-old Filipina whom he has a child with.
“It may be that this is the female depicted in some of all of these photographs; I do not know,” said Faulkner.
While Finn was charged with, and convicted of, the importation of child pornography it appeared that he was only importing it into the country because the road from Alaska to the lower 48 states travels through Canada, noted Faulkner.
“There is no indication that he intended to do more than proceed through this country to the U.S. with his computer in tow,” he said.
Faulkner sided with the prosecution, handing Finn the two-year sentence it was asking for. However, with time served, he’ll only spent 16.5 months in jail.
Once he’s released, Finn will be deported back to the U.S. where he is likely to face more charges.
He’ll also be required to provide a DNA sample and register with the Canadian sex offender database for the next 20 years.
Contact Josh Kerr at
joshk@yukon-news.com