Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Child porn possession nets 'closet pedophile' 10-month sentence

An Island man found with 8,300 child pornography images on his computer has been sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Photo - scales of justice - courts

An Island man found with 8,300 child pornography images on his computer has been sentenced to 10 months in jail.

William Herbert Erich Kreibom pleaded guilty to one of two charges against him for possession of the images between March 2018 and March 2019.

Some images were of children as young as two or three.

“I find that the nature of the collection to be extremely ­aggravating,” said Nanaimo ­provincial court Judge Karen Whonnock, who said the images are “very repulsive, and ­represent a sickening horror and violent acts of sexual abuse of children.”

Whonnock’s decision, released Tuesday, said the RCMP, in conjunction with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the B.C. Integrated Child Exploitation Unit, spoke with Kreibom in 2015 about the illegality of child pornography.

RCMP submitted charges for approval of possession of distribution of child pornography but the Crown decline to proceed.

In June 2018, the child exploitation unit received third-hand information that Kreibom had admitted on his Facebook profile that he was a “closet pedophile.”

He told RCMP officers at the time “he used to have sexual urges towards children but has moved past this,” the decision said.

Kreibom told police he had learned his lesson from the previous RCMP investigation in 2015 and had not been in the possession of child pornography since.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received information that an image of child pornography was uploaded on Sept. 12, 2018. The image was traced to Kreibom.

On March 12, 2019, Nanaimo RCMP executed a search warrant, seizing a laptop, a cellphone and multiple electronic storage devices.

“Mr. Kreibom admitted that having images of children is wrong. He said that the images pop up when he looked for regular pornography,” the decision said.

“Mr. Kreibom stated that he looked at the images of child pornography ‘out of curiosity’ but would never ‘use a kid that way.’ Mr. Kreibom stated that ‘if he ever saw an adult doing that to a kid, he would stop it and beat up the adult.’ Mr. Kreibom stated he did not know why he holds onto the images and that it is stupid. Mr. Kreibom stated to the police that he is just a ‘lonely old cross-dressing man.’ ”

Kreibom has attended the Upper Island Sex Offender Program.

His sentence includes a 20-year ban on being around anyone under 16 and not use the internet for accessing illegal content.