Caza guilty of child porn charges
A notorious Kamloops pedophile who was convicted today (May 1) of possessing and distributing child pornography could be under strict supervision for up to a decade after he gets out of jail.
David Caza's verdict was read in B.C. Supreme Court this morning — a decision which found him guilty of two charges but acquitted on counts of invitation to sexual touching and Internet luring.
He was also convicted of one breach charge.
Caza, 48, has been in custody since his arrest in January 2010, which came as part of an international law-enforcement crackdown on child pornography.
During a lengthy trial which wrapped up last month, court heard police searched Caza's Columbia Street apartment and turned up 3,500 videos and 50,000 pictures, most of them verified to be depictions of children involved in sexual acts.
Mounties also found photos apparently taken from his apartment, showing children playing in the snow in the St. Ann's Academy schoolyard.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Powers noted the "time and interest" Caza devoted to his child-porn collection.
"There is no doubt this was an extremely large and well-organized collection of child pornography, mostly involving young boys," the judge said, describing the evidence against Caza as "overwhelming" on the possession and distribution counts.
"There can be no other reasonable inference drawn."
The photos of St. Ann's children playing in the snow were found to have been taken on Jan. 4, 2010 — six days before Caza's arrest.
When police entered Caza's apartment, they found an 80-gigabyte hard drive plugged into his computer.
That hard drive did not contain any child pornography. However, a search of the apartment turned up a 500-gigabyte hard drive which did contain child pornography.
Caza swapped the hard drives when he heard police knocking on his door.
Caza was convicted in 2001 of sexually assaulting three teenaged boys, and again in 2005 for possession of child pornography.
Prior to his arrest in 2010, he had been living on court-ordered conditions requiring he stay 100 metres away from schools and parks, and barring him from possessing "visual representations of persons who reasonably appear to be under the age of 16 years."
Crown prosecutor Bernie Ward said he plans to seek long-term offender status for Caza — meaning he'll be under strict supervision for up to 10 years after his release from jail.
The status is one step below a dangerous-offender designation, which can see high-risk criminals jailed indefinitely.
Lawyers will meet to set a date for Caza's next court appearance before long-term offender status is sought.
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