Man who directed sex abuse of 5-year-old over Skype gets 7 years

A Winnipeg man who directed the sexual abuse of a five-year-old U.S. boy over Skype has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Greg Alan Jamieson, 45, previously pleaded guilty to making child pornography, sexual interference, agreeing to or arranging a sexual offence against a child for the purposes of child exploitation and possessing child pornography.

Judge Rocky Pollack said Jamieson and the U.S. co-accused used the victim "like a sex toy" and called images of the abuse "disturbing" and "alarming."

Pollack's sentence is one year longer than what the Crown requested.

Jamieson received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to just over 70 months.

Jamieson was arrested in November 2016, five months after the administrators of an internet chat room service reported a user had uploaded an image of child pornography. Police ultimately identified the user's IP address and executed a search warrant at Jamieson's Winnipeg home.

Arresting officers immediately found child pornography on a computer in the house. During a subsequent forensic examination of the computer, police found communications and video on Skype involving Jamieson and a then-unknown male who appeared to be sexually abusing a child in his care.

Jamieson posed as a woman during the Skype text chats and sent the U.S. man pictures of a naked woman, claiming they were pictures of him. In text extracts from October 2016, the two men described themselves as pedophiles and discussed how they would abuse the boy.

At Jamieson's direction, the other man molested the boy. The man live-streamed the abuse.

Pollack said he did not accept Jamieson's claim in a pre-sentence report that he was unaware the other man was recording the abuse.

Questioned by police, Jamieson refused to disclose anything he knew about the other man or his whereabouts.

In June, U.S. authorities tracked the man to Las Vegas where he was arrested and the boy was rescued.