Vancouver senior sentenced to 14 months on child porn charges

RCMP say they identified an apartment in Port McNeill, B.C., as a point of original for child porn image distribution. March 11, 2010. (RCMP)

Vancouver — A senior has been sentenced to 14 months behind bars after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, Vancouver police announced Thursday.

Authorities said 68-year-old John Penry Roberts pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography on Monday in provincial court.

He was nabbed following an investigation into online child pornography sharing in 2017, which resulted in police searching his home and seizing multiple electronic devices.

In a statement, Const. Tania Visintin of the Vancouver Police Department described the case as "a disturbing investigation for detectives," who had to review more than 1.9 million seized images and videos.

Of those, 20,000 images and 4,000 videos were determined to be child pornography, Visintin said.

Authorities did not disclose the location of Roberts' home, but said he lived there for decades and that it was within one block of an elementary school, a daycare centre and a park.