B.C. man found with over 60,000 photos, 2,200 videos showing ‘violent sexual abuse’ of girls, court hears

Warning: This story may be disturbing to readers.

An elderly B.C. man found with thousands of photos and videos showing the violent sexual abuse of young girls has been sentenced to two years less a day in jail, according to a recent court decision.

William Lee Tate, 82, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography and one count of transmitting child pornography in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria earlier this year. He was sentenced last month.

The investigation into Tate began in 2019, the court heard, when U.S, authorities identified an IP address, later linked to Tate, that was sharing a “large volume” of child sexual abuse material on a peer-to-peer site.

Justice Gareth Morley’s sentencing decision outlines what was found when a number of devices were seized from Tate’s home in 2022.

‘“These were ultimately found to contain 60,491 unique images confirmed by two police officers reviewing them to meet the code’s definition of ‘child pornography’ and 2,272 unique videos, also constituting ‘child pornography.’ The total run time of all the videos amounted to 5,742 hours and 54 minutes,” the judge wrote.

“They depict violent sexual abuse of prepubescent girls, some of them infants … The depiction of the suffering is presumably part of the appeal for the viewer. The images and videos show human nature at its cruellest and most malevolent directed against the most vulnerable.”

Tate’s lawyer asked the court for a conditional sentence order of two years, served in the community but under house arrest. Crown argued time behind bars was necessary in the circumstances, arguing for a jail sentence of two years less a day followed by three years of probation.

Morley’s decision noted that conditional sentences for crimes involving the sexual abuse of children are available only in “exceptional circumstances” and found no such circumstances were present in the case before him.

One of the main aggravating factors was the “horrifically violent” nature of the materials and the “enormous quantity” Tate had in his possession, the judge’s decision said.

The impact of the crimes on the victims was also considered aggravating.

“We may not know who Mr. Tate’s victims were, but there were many, possibly thousands, of them. Girls were tortured and robbed of their childhoods and their fundamental right to sexual integrity. Mr. Tate may not have touched or filmed the victims, but he participated in their exploitation and enslavement. Their torture was for his benefit and of the benefit of others like him, including those he was actively ‘sharing’ with,” Morley wrote.

“Each of those images and videos depicts abuse that will have effects for decades.”

Tate, in pleading guilty, admitted the photos and videos were his and that he had shared them, but the judge found he “minimized his culpability.” Morley rejected Tate’s claims that he did not know the material was illegal, that the photos and videos were gathered for research purposes and that he was only interested in consensual sexual relationships with adult women.

“He is either lying to himself or to the court,” the judge wrote.

The court heard Tate had no criminal record and moved from the U.S. to Canada because he was against the Vietnam War. Now retired and living alone in subsidized housing, Tate worked as a researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, a longshoreman at the Port of Vancouver, and a teacher. The court decision also said Tate was one of the founders of Vancouver’s Georgia Straight newspaper.

Tate’s lack of criminal record and otherwise “good character” were not seen as mitigating in the case, according to the decision.

“It is common that offenders found guilty of possession or transmission of child pornography will have no criminal record and will otherwise be respectable members of the community,” Morley wrote.

Tate’s guilty plea was considered the only mitigating factor in the case.

The judge imposed an 18-month jail sentence on the possession charge and a sentence of two years less a day on the transmission charge, to be served concurrently.

Tate will be on probation for three years, and a ban on contact with anyone under 16 and using the internet will be in effect for 10 years after his release. He was also ordered to submit a DNA sample and to comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Information Act for 20 years.