Edmonton playwright and former teacher admits possessing child pornography

Well-known Edmonton playwright and former teacher David Belke has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and now faces an automatic six-month jail sentence.

He appeared in an Edmonton courtroom Thursday morning with a dozen friends and family members there to support him.

Eight months ago, the now 57-year-old took his computer to a Staples outlet in Edmonton to be repaired.

According to an agreed statement of facts, a store technician located nude images of young children on the computer and contacted police.

• Edmonton playwright charged with possession of child pornography

The Internet Child Exploitation Unit analyzed the computer and its contents. Officers found a dozen photos of nude females who appeared to be under the age of 18.

According to the court document, "none of these images depicted explicit sexual activity, although a number of them contained captions describing explicit sexual activity."

Police found most of the images appeared to be from "naturist or nudist" sites on the internet.

Police also discovered six word documents on Belke's computer that had been written by other people that described sexual activity between an adult and a person under the age of 18.

Belke's lawyer, Kelly Dawson,told the court, "He fully acknowledges he had pictures of children he considered beautiful, downloaded onto his computer. He did not realize at least 12 of these pictures could be considered child pornography. He now understands he's broken the law. He's ashamed of his conduct and his ignorance. He's truly sorry and deeply remorseful."

Images and stories downloaded out of curiosity

The court was told Belke amassed his "collection"over a period of about eight years and did so primarily out of curiosity, unaware that the pictures and stories were consideredillegal child pornography.

According to the agreed statement of facts, "He [Belke]further advised that he is attracted to the innocence of the young people depicted, finding them beautiful."

Belke did not share the images or stories with anyone.

Contemplated suicide

Dawson told Judge D'arcy DePoethat Belke's life turned upside down when he was charged with possession of child pornography.

Belke was working as a substitute teacher for the Edmonton Public School Board. He was immediately suspended from all teaching duties.

A six-month contractteaching adult students at The King's University was also terminated right away. His membership with the Canadian Playwright Association was deleted and some directors and actors have refused to work on plays he wrote.

Dawson told the court, "When he was arrested his life became, at that time, a black hole for him. He was physically catatonic at times when I was dealing with himunable to speak a word,unable to control his emotions."

Belke had thought about suicide. Out of concern, Dawson sent him to psychologist George Pugh for counselling. Since then, he said Belke's psychological state hasstabilized.

Low risk to re-offend

Pugh conducted a psychological assessment on Belke for the court. He determined Belke is not a pedophilebecause he has no interest in having sex with children.

"In my opinion, Mr. Belke's use of childpornography falls into the category of a low-need curiosity user," Pugh wrote in his psychological assessment.

Pugh also noted Belke's "exemplary lifestyle, his clear sense of shame and guilt and his deep regret" all as indications Belke poses a low risk to reoffend, and "very little to no risk to actually offend against a child."

Belke's lawyer filed 50 letters of support to the court. One of them was written by lifetime friend, Wayne Phare.

Outside the court, Phare said he was,"just part of a very big community that loves this guy. So that's why we're here."

Phare said Belke has received a lot of support from the congregation at Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

"David has paid dearly more than any sentence they could come up with. If he's made this mistake, fine. Our job as a Christian church is to forgive that kind of thing and be with him in the journey. And that's sort of what we're doing."

There's a joint submission for Belke to serve the mandatory minimum six-month jail sentence, to be followed by 12 months probation.

Judge DePoehas reserved his decision on sentencing until Nov. 17.