{"id":50964,"date":"2015-06-01T13:33:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T05:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=50964"},"modified":"2015-06-01T13:33:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T05:33:08","slug":"ex-ontario-deputy-education-minister-sentenced-to-three-years-for-child-porn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/01\/ex-ontario-deputy-education-minister-sentenced-to-three-years-for-child-porn\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex Ontario deputy education minister sentenced to three years for child porn"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TORONTO — A top Ontario educator urged people he met online to \u201csadistically sexually assault\u201d their children in his quest for sexual thrills, an Ontario judge said in sentencing him to three years in prison.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Levin, who once served as deputy education minister in Ontario and Manitoba, \u201cappeared to have it all,\u201d Judge Heather McArthur said in her decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was respected by friends and colleagues and was considered a leading authority on education. He had a loving wife and three grown daughters who treasured him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But Levin also had a \u201chidden dark side,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbeknownst to his friends, colleagues and family, he had become deeply immersed in a deviant and depraved online world.”<\/p>\n

Levin, 63, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, making child pornography — a charge stemming from an explicit story he wrote — and counselling the indictable offence of sexual assault. He was originally charged with seven child porn-related offences.<\/p>\n

In conversations he had online, Levin claimed to have sexually abused his own daughters, but \u201cthere is no evidence that he ever had sexual contact with a child,\u201d McArthur said.<\/p>\n

She noted that Levin, who kept his head bowed for much of the sentencing, appeared \u201cgenuinely remorseful\u201d and was deemed to have low risk of reoffending by a forensic psychiatrist.<\/p>\n

Levin has said in a written statement that he’s \u201cdeeply ashamed\u201d of his actions.<\/p>\n

Many of his friends and former colleagues have penned letters to the court lauding his contributions to education. His daughters have sworn in writing that he never abused them or behaved in a sexually inappropriate way in their presence, and his wife of more than 36 years said she still loves him and will continue to support him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis acceptance will be an important aspect of his rehabilitative efforts,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Court has heard Levin used to frequent a website with numerous chat rooms for the discussion of sexual activities.<\/p>\n

Among the people he chatted with were an undercover officer in Toronto, one in London, Ontario, and one in New Zealand — all posing as women interested in sexual activities with children.<\/p>\n

In one case, Levin wrote a story detailing \u201cthe violent sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl\u201dfor an officer pretending to be a single woman interested in incest fantasies.<\/p>\n

In another case, he \u201ccounselled another officer posing as a young mother to sadistically sexually assault her eight-year-old daughter,\u201d McArthur said.<\/p>\n

Court heard Levin instructed her on how to \u201cgroom the child to get her ‘used to sex,’\u201c to expose her daughter to pornography, to be nude, and to masturbate in front of the child.<\/p>\n

At no point did he clarify that it was purely a fantasy, or take steps to find out whether any real abuse was occurring, McArthur said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Levin knew that the person he was chatting with online might be real and that an actual eight-year-old girl could be repeatedly sexually assaulted at his direction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn’t care. Mr. Levin recklessly pursued his own selfish sexual urges, all the while knowing an innocent young child could be abused as a result. Mr. Levin’s moral blameworthiness is extremely high.”<\/p>\n

Levin was arrested in July 2013 when a search warrant was executed at his home. He was a university professor at the time.<\/p>\n

As part of his sentence, Levin is barred for five years from going to parks, schools or community centres where children might be, unless supervised by an adult aware of his situation. He also faces a five-year ban on working or being in contact with children unless supervised, and on using the Internet for anything but work or education. He must also submit a DNA sample to authorities.<\/p>\n

Toronto police Det. Const. Janelle Blackadar, who posed online as the mother of the eight-year-old girl, said she hopes the case sends a clear message to any others involved in child pornography.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are offenders that are out there, if they’re doing things online… I hope everybody knows we will stop at nothing to make sure that they are arrested and victims are saved.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — A top Ontario educator urged people he met online to \u201csadistically sexually assault\u201d their children in his quest …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-paola-loriggio","mauthors-the-canadian-press1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}