DAVID CAZA: Registered as a sex offender for life.
A sex offender who hijacked the Internet account of a former roommate to share child pornography had no reasonable expectation of privacy from police searches, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.
David Caza was sentenced in August 2012 for possessing child pornography, distributing child pornography and breaching a court order.
He was sentenced to seven years in jail and declared a long-term offender. With time served, Caza was scheduled to be released last year.
He appealed that conviction based on a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2014 that found Internet users have a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding police requests for information from telecommunication companies.
In this case, an Ontario investigator asked Shaw Communications Inc. to disclose customer information on a IP address linked to child pornography as part of a larger investigation that started in the United States.
Shaw handed over the subscriber information voluntarily and it was traced it to an account in the name of Brian Feltham, a former roommate of Caza’s.
When the roommate moved, Caza — who was already banned from using a computer to contact persons under 16 — assumed the account and paid it under Feltham’s name.
RCMP later determined Caza lived at the Columbia Street address and raided the home.
Investigators found 3,500 videos and 50,000 pictures on Caza’s computer, most of them verified to be depictions of children involved in sexual acts.
Caza’s lawyer argued his client’s right to privacy under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was breached, saying Shaw should not have handed over the subscriber information without a search warrant.
But, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled Caza’s theft of the account removed that protection.
“Mr. Caza did not have the permission of Mr. Feltham to use his Shaw account and, in fact, fraudulently hijacked his Internet account,” the court ruled.
“Lack of permission in the circumstances of this case is sufficient to render any subjective impression of privacy Mr. Caza may have had objectively unreasonable.”
Caza’s jail sentence was to be followed by a 10-year long-term supervision order in the community.
He is registered as a sex offender for life and forever banned from visiting parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and schools.
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