The rear entrance of the Quinte Courthouse, on July.14/16. (Photo: David Foot / QuinteNews)
A 71 year-old Belleville man has been sentenced to five years in prison, with credit for one year of time served, after pleading guilty to possessing, making and distributing child porn.
Frank Burns also pleaded guilty to committing an indecent act, careless storage of a firearm and nine counts of luring a person under 18, in Belleville court on Wednesday.
An investigation began in 2015 after various electronic service providers in the US notified the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre and Belleville Police about images of child pornography being uploaded from an IP address in the city.
Police executed a warrant on Burns’ home in April of this year and a number of electronic devices were seized including a laptop computer, various cameras, hard drives, memory cards and others.
In total, investigators found almost 5,000 image and video files containing child pornography, across five devices.
One of those videos appeared to show Burns walking through a city grocery store and masturbating.
Investigators also found that Burns was engaging in online chats with young people, exposing himself and sending and receiving sexual videos and pictures of minors.
Along with the prison time, Burns was placed on the sex offender registry for life, cannot attend or volunteer in places where youth under 16 are present for three years and cannot use any social media, or communicate with someone under 16.
The devices seized during the investigation were forfeited to be destroyed.
