Judge breaks down while sentencing man for child pornography offences

During his 26 years on the bench, provincial court Judge Ray Wyant has sentenced killers, rapists, and thieves and been a constant witness to humanity at its worst.

On Tuesday, the veteran judge sentenced a man whose collecting and distributing of child sex abuse videos online included detailed and violent descriptions of child rape.

Resting his brow on his hand, his voice catching with what looked like tears, Wyant couldn’t contain his emotion.

He didn’t even try.

“It’s enough really to bring tears to your eye and take your breath away,” Wyant said.

“Those of us in the justice system talk about it … but really, in an intellectual way, how can you explain that kind of abuse and degradation of children?

“It’s enough really to bring tears to your eye and take your breath away.”–Judge Ray Wyant

“Obviously you can see I am getting emotional, and I am not going to deny my own emotions here,” he said. “In the criminal justice system, we see all sorts of terrible and unspeakable acts of evil perpetrated on other people.

“We see, vicariously, pictures of death, of terrible physical injuries of people, but I will say that the first time I had to see images of child sexual assault material, it changed me fundamentally in a way those other pictures never did. You can never get rid of the images once you have seen them.”

“You can never get rid of the images once you have seen them.”–Judge Ray Wyant

Jason Bigl, 31, was among 12 people arrested following a 2021 investigation targeting an interprovincial gun and drug trafficking ring.

Following Bigl’s arrest, police seized his electronic devices and found more than 560 child sex abuse videos and 1,000 child sex abuse images.

Online chats showed him sending money to both adults and people he believed to be minors in exchange for child sex abuse videos created at his request, and chats with adults with whom he shared violent fantasies of child rape and bestiality.

Bigl pleaded guilty to one count each of possession of child pornography, transmitting child pornography and making written child pornography and in a sentence jointly recommended by the Crown and defence was ordered to serve eight years in prison.

“Given the nature and scope of his online involvement, there should be some real concern” about Bigl’s risk to the community, Crown attorney Katie Dojack told Wyant.

“These weren’t merely crimes of opportunity,” she said. “He was seeking out exactly what he wanted, whenever he wanted,” paying “like-minded offenders” for “made-to-order” child sex abuse images and videos.

With respect to the gun and drug investigation, Bigl pleaded guilty to trafficking firearms, conspiracy to traffic firearms, and conspiracy to traffic drugs. He was sentenced to another eight years in prison.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, surveillance and wiretap evidence showed that between May 2021 and his arrest the following December, Bigl shipped and received or personally delivered dozens of packages containing illegal firearms, methamphetamine, and large amounts of foil-wrapped bundles of cash at the behest of co-accused Mitchell Bruneau.

Bruneau, Bigl’s housemate, was the “Manitoba boss” of the crime ring, and was previously sentenced to 14 years in prison, said prosecutor Libby Standil.

Had Bigl been convicted in a trial rather than plead guilty, the Crown would have recommended a much longer sentence than eight years, Standil said.

Bruneau might have been the “Manitoba boss,” but Bigl was a “lieutenant” without whom the crime ring could not operate, Wyant said.

“He was a loyal soldier, and without them we don’t have the ability to distribute guns, drugs and money through the mail in the fashion that (Bigl) was involved in,” Wyant said.

“I recognize we are probably talking about a drop in the bucket, because this was a snapshot in the time that the warrants were obtained and the observations were made,” he said.

Bigl, who has no prior criminal record, had a tragic upbringing blighted by neglect, abuse and loss and has only recently started to come to grips with the harm he has caused, said defence lawyer Saheel Zaman.

As a child, Bigl repeatedly went to authorities to report he was being abused and nothing was done, “colouring his often irrational decision making,” Zaman said.

“He doesn’t know why he does things and he wants help,” he said.

The “knee-jerk reaction” in cases like Bigl’s is “to take the key and throw it away,” Wyant said.

“But … the criminal justice system does not operate that way and it shouldn’t operate that way,” Wyant said.

“The prospects for rehabilitation are significant in Mr. Bigl’s case. I am impressed he has started to take programs and others corroborate the fact he is starting to come to grips with the abuse he suffered (and) I find he is gaining insight into his behaviour.”

Bigl received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to just under 12 ½ years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca