For the third time since April, a B.C. Supreme Court justice has denied an application to return the passport of a Colwood man convicted of child pornography offences.
On Wednesday, William James, 70, told Justice Keith Bracken he was terminally ill and wanted to travel to India to visit a family he has been supporting financially.
“Overall, I’d like to get out of this situation I’m in,” James said.
In May 2010, James was convicted of threatening the life of Crown prosecutor Georgia Peters and sentenced to one year in jail and three years of probation. The terms of his probation expire in 2014.
Peters had approved charges of accessing and possessing child pornography against James in 2004 and 2005.
A B.C. Supreme Court jury convicted James in January 2008 of making child pornography on visits to India and Cambodia between October 2002 and January 2004.
On Wednesday, James gave Bracken a letter from his family doctor confirming he has prostate cancer. Another letter from his oncologist advised the court that James has less than a year to live and will spend some of that time in palliative care. The letter also says James has been effectively medically castrated by the cancer.
The youngest daughter in the Indian family he supports is now 20 and going to school, he said.
Crown prosecutor Pinder Cheema told Bracken this was James’s third attempt to have the terms of his 2010 probation reduced. Justice Geoff Gaul and Justice Brian Mackenzie dismissed similar applications earlier this year.
Three psychiatrists believe James is a pedophile and at high risk to reoffend, she said.
James minimizes his problems and lacks insight, Cheema said. He did not complete the sex offender program in jail and reluctantly paid the victim surcharge fee because he did not believe viewing or accessing child porn victimized children.
“He still doesn’t get it,” Cheema said. “The community would be at risk if he were taken off probation.”
James argued that he had completed his treatment.
“Being castrated... Isn’t that the ultimate in treatment? I think I’ve done the ultimate in treatment.”
Bracken dismissed the application.
