Former NSCAD technician sentenced for Japanese anime child porn
A former longtime employee of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for possession of child pornography, most of which involved sexually explicit images drawn in a Japanese style called anime.
Roy Franklyn Newcombe, 70, pleaded guilty to the charge after a NSCAD student found a USB thumb drive with sexually explicit images and videos at a computer lab in April 2014.
There was no indication the images involved local people or had been manufactured by Newcombe. Most of the 20 images were anime, although a few appear to be of real girls between five and 13 years old, court was told Monday.
Defense lawyer Paul Miller told the court Newcombe had stumbled upon the illegal images while searching the Internet for adult pornography.
After court Miller told CBC News the moral of this story is "not to go looking because you never know what you may find that will get you in trouble."
Newcombe's arrest and subsequent firing sent shock waves through NSCAD, where he had worked 35 years as a technician in the multimedia lab.
On Monday, he stood stood quietly and told Judge Laurie Halfpenny MacQuarrie he was sorry and remorseful for what he had done, and for hurting his wife and friends who have continued to support him.
He receives a pension from NSCAD and is currently working part time at a friend's cafe.
He and his wife were also foster parents of a teenager when he was charged. Although the couple is still married, they must live apart because of court imposed conditions that he stay away from children under 16 unless supervised by an adult.
The judge accepted a joint sentencing recommendation for Newcombe to serve 90 days on the weekends, two years probation, continue mental health counselling, provide a DNA sample, and stay away from the Internet.
