Child porn collector should have been sentenced to prison, says Ontario's top court
Ontario’s top court agreed house arrest was an “unfit” sentence for a man caught with 22,746 images and 741 videos of child sexual abuse, but it declined to give him prison time.
A year ago, Justice Clayton Conlan of the province’s Superior Court of Justice handed Matthew Elias a conditional sentence of two years less a day on house arrest and three years of probation. The Crown appealed the sentence, arguing that Elias should get three years behind bars.
“I agree with the Crown that the sentencing judge erred in principle by failing to recognize aggravating factors and failing to prioritize denunciation and deterrence as sentencing objectives,” Justice Sally A. Gomery wrote in a recent decision from Ontario’s Court of Appeal.
Elias should have been sentenced to 30 months in prison, Gomery wrote in a decision from the three-judge panel.
But the appeal court concluded “that incarcerating Mr. Elias at this point would not serve the interests of justice” and dismissed the appeal.
“Elias is now roughly halfway through his conditional sentence,” Gomery said in the Feb. 18 decision. “Had he originally been sentenced to a 30-month carceral sentence, he would soon be eligible for parole. Furthermore, if he is resentenced to this custodial sentence, he would not be subject to an additional three years of community supervision in the form of probation at the end of his carceral term.”
The court heard that in March 2021, a pornographic video was uploaded and shared in a chat on a messenger application that was eventually shared with police.
The video showed a prepubescent girl exposing herself sexually, the appeal decision said
Investigators figured out the video was uploaded from the house where Elias lived with his parents and got a search warrant.
“Several USB drives, computer devices, and other electronic devices were found in Mr. Elias’ bedroom. Among them, two USB devices and a micro-SD card (an electronic storage device) collectively contained 22,746 images and 741 videos of child sexual abuse and exploitation material,” said the decision. “The sentencing judge observed that describing their contents as disturbing ‘would be a gross understatement.'”
The material included “numerous videos of the sexual abuse, rape and torture of young children under the age of eight years old,” and others of “very young children” posing nude and being abused, said the decision.
The items seized by police also contained “other videos that appear to have been taken by Elias, covertly filmed in public areas, with the focus being on the buttocks of the unsuspecting victims,” said the decision.
Elias plead guilty in August 2024 to possession of child pornography.
The sentencing judge reviewed his “personal circumstances at length,” said the appeal decision.
“Elias was an unmarried, 37-year-old man. He had always lived with his parents and had never had a romantic relationship with anyone. He had completed high school and had been employed for years but had been laid off. He played hockey recreationally. The sentencing judge noted Mr. Elias had a long history of mental health issues, including depression, low self-esteem, loneliness and suicidal ideation. He also abused alcohol and marijuana.”
A forensic psychiatrist testified that “Elias has a pedophilic disorder that, left untreated, would give rise to a moderate risk that he would re-offend,” said the appeal decision.
The same psychiatrist believed “Elias would likely comply with therapy and treatment. The author of the pre-sentence report also believed that he was a suitable candidate for community supervision. Mr. Elias had no criminal record and had complied with bail conditions for approximately 40 months.”
The sentencing judge noted that Elias’ father was ill and he depended heavily on his son for activities of daily living, said the appeal decision.
“By the time the sentencing hearing took place, Mr. Elias was estranged from his two siblings. He had no relationship with any family member except his father. His mother had been deeply distressed by the criminal prosecution, and Mr. Elias blamed himself for her death from cancer in early 2024.”
The sentencing judge also found that Elias was “deeply remorseful and regretful for his actions,” said the appeal decision. “He quoted at length from a letter that Mr. Elias wrote to the court about the collateral impact of his arrest and potential incarceration, and in which he apologized to the children victimized by his offence.”
Aggravating factors in the case included the “‘immense’ size of the collection of images and videos in his possession; the ‘significant’ degree of depravity that infused the collection; Mr. Elias’ voyeuristic tendencies, exemplified by the videos he took of buttocks of children secretly filmed in public places; and Mr. Elias’ moderate risk to re-offend, although his risk was based on the assumption that he would remain untreated for his pedophilic disorder, an assumption that the sentencing judge found ‘very unlikely to materialize.’”
Elias’ guilty plea, lack of a previous criminal record, “genuine remorse and regret,” rehabilitative steps taken since his arrest, and his “suitability” and commitment to therapy were all seen as mitigating factors.
The Crown argued for a three-year prison sentence. The defence recommended a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
Conlan “concluded that a conditional sentence was appropriate based on ‘a truly unique set of circumstances,’” said the appeal decision.
“A seriously mentally ill man with no criminal history has pleaded guilty to having amassed a very dense and extremely grotesque collection of child pornography and has now endured severe collateral consequences for his criminal actions, yet he has also been the lifeline for his ill father, and he has taken the road towards rehabilitation, and he is seen by all independent professionals who have dealt with him to be a good candidate for continuing to do so in the community,” Conlan said in his Feb. 19, 2025 sentencing decision.
The judge also ordered Elias to be registered as a sex offender for 20 years and forbade him from contact with a young person under the age of 16 unless the child is a relative and the contact is supervised.
The appeal court found that the sentencing judge failed “to recognize significant aggravating factors, and this had an impact on the sentence imposed.”
“First, although he recognized that the size and depravity of Mr. Elias’ collection were relevant to sentencing, the sentencing judge failed to identify the nature of the collection and the number of children victimized as distinct and further aggravating factors.”
According to Gomery, offenders who victimize more children should expect to receive “significantly higher sentences.”
“Given the size of Mr. Elias’ collection, thousands of children were victimized in its creation, and re-victimized by the sharing and re-viewing of their abuse. This is an even more aggravating factor than the size of the collection.”
Conlan “failed to recognize the duration of time during which Elias collected the material and the frequency of his engagement with it as aggravating factors. Evidence that an offender has amassed a collection over time and that they interact with it regularly increases their moral blameworthiness because it shows ‘their conduct is entrenched and increase(es) the number of times they victimize the depicted children.’”
“Mr. Elias was not a passive viewer of child sexual abuse and exploitation material,” the appeal court found.
While Conlan “acknowledged that denunciation and deterrence were primary sentencing goals, he did not give them priority,” said the appeal decision. “He instead focused on the offender and his circumstances. This was an error in principle.”
This story has been edited to remove some disturbing details from the court ruling.
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