Man sentenced to two years of house arrest for possessing child pornography

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DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — A Dawson Creek man who pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography will serve his sentence in the community. 

Luke Warrener, 33, was sentenced on September 18th at Fort St. John Provincial Court to two years less a day of house arrest and three years of probation.

He appeared by video conference from the Abbotsford courthouse.

The Crown sought consecutive sentences of two years in jail, while Warrener’s lawyer asked for a sentence to be served in the community.

“Mr. Warrener did not stumble into child pornography, nor was he introduced by accident,” said Judge Darin Reeves. “He has sought out specific images to sexually gratify.”

In his oral ruling, Reeves said Warrener’s partner reported his possession and storage of child pornography to police in April 2020.

A forensic analysis found 1,045 images — 717 unique and 331 duplicates — on two mobile phones that Warrener used in 2019 and 2020.

The images focused on infant-to-prepubescent girls involved in sex acts and images of adult males and females engaging in sex acts with children.

Reeves quoted from pre-sentence and psychological/psychiatric assessment reports about Warrener, which described a traumatic childhood of significant corporal punishment from his mother and distance from his father, who died of suicide more than five years ago.

The report said he likely has a pedophiliac disorder and is at a moderate risk of suicide.

Reeves took into account Warrener’s guilty pleas and the “incredibly long time” for the case to reach a conclusion, impacted in the early stages by Covic-19 pandemic restrictions on court operations.

“The vast majority of delay created by Mr. Warrener himself, including three occasions that required warrants be issued to bring him back to court,” Reeves said. “Although, his guilty pleas spared the court and Crown what would undoubtedly have been a long and complicated court process.”

House arrest conditions include a ban on possessing or using a mobile phone or any device to access a computer network, including the internet.

Reeves said he could access the internet on a public device at the supportive housing facility where he resides or by prior written permission of his conditional sentence supervisor.

For the first 18 months of probation, Reeves set a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, with exceptions for employment, counselling programming and medical emergency.

Warrener must not possess alcohol or drugs, except for prescriptions, or have contact or communication with anyone under 16, or seek volunteer or employment positions that would put him in a position of trust or authority of someone under 16.

He will also be entered into the national sex offender registry.

At the end of the hearing, Reeves addressed Warrener: “You have some mental health issues to work on.

“Do so, accept the help. I do not want to see you back before the courts like this again.”

“Yes, your honour,” Warrener replied.