Alberta soldier convicted on child porn offences awaits sentencing

A CFB Wainwright-based soldier will be sentenced next month after having been found guilty in an Edmonton courtroom of making and transmitting child pornography.

Cpl. Steven Massey exchanged hundreds of messages with a U.S. Homeland Security police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl from Texas between March 20and June 20,2017, court documents say.

He was arrested on June 21, 2017, in Edmonton after an investigation by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team and U.S. Homeland Security.

In his written decision dated Sept. 8, 2020, Justice Brian Burrows said there was sufficient evidence to convictMassey on charges of making and transmitting child pornography.

In some of Massey'stext messages to the fictitious girl named Emma, he described sexual activity the two would engage in if they were to meet, Burrows said in his decision.

"The messages he composed were about sexual activity with a child the child Emma waspretending to be," Burrow wrote.

• Alberta soldier faces child luring, child porn charges in cross-border investigation
• Alberta soldier facing child luring, child porn charges granted bail

"It does not matter in this context whether Mr. Massey thought Emma was a child or an adult," he said.

Sending thesexual messagesto Emma constituted transmitting child pornography, Burrows said.

Massy, however, was found not guilty on acharge of luring a child.

Massey, aged 32 at the time of his arrest, had no concrete plans to meet with the fictitious Emma,Burrows said.

Massey had testified at his trial in August 2020he suspected Emma was an adult pretending to be a child but continued the conversation because he was lonely.

He said Emma shared pictures of someone who appeared to be older than 16 and deflected his requests for spontaneous selfies or to speak orally.

"This would give Mr. Massey reason for suspicion that Emma was not the person she was presenting herself to be. Harbouring such a suspicion would be inconsistent with Mr. Masseybelieving that Emma was under 16," Burrows wrote.

Massey's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16 in Edmonton's Court of Queen's Bench.