A former Sidney/North Saanich RCMP officer who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography has been sentenced to six months in jail and 18 months’ probation.
Dale Lee Sheets, who was arrested in December 2013 by the West Shore RCMP major-crime unit, pleaded guilty last October.
The sentence, imposed Wednesday in Western Communities provincial court by Judge Adrian Brooks, reflected a joint submission by the Crown and the defence.
Defence lawyer Geofrey Simair asked that Sheets be allowed to serve his sentence in the Nanaimo Correctional Centre to allow him to avoid encountering inmates he had come into contact with while serving as a police officer.
Sheets was charged with possessing child pornography between Sept. 1 and Dec. 1, 2013. A charge of making child pornography using Internet images during the same time period was dropped.
Sheets, who is in his 50s and has no children, was suspended immediately after his arrest, and his discharge documents were accepted by the RCMP within 24 hours.
On Wednesday, Sheets was also fined for firearms offences, including possession of a firearm — his service weapon — at an unauthorized location.
