SASKATOON -- For the first time in Saskatchewan, a woman is facing child pornography charges without a male co-accused.
The woman, who recently turned 26, was charged on Feb. 9. Her name cannot be reported under a publication ban to protect her alleged child victims.
The woman is facing charges including: committing a sexual offence against a child, making child pornography and bestiality.
Just days after making history as the first female charged in Saskatchewan with this type of offence, in a separate case, a 35-year-old woman was charged with possessing child pornography.
“It is very unusual, but with COVID, all our files are up. So charging women? If they’re doing it too, we’ll charge if the evidence is there,” said Staff Sgt. Shawn Stubbs, provincial coordinator of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit.
In both cases, Stubbs said there appears to be no involvement of a male counterpart.
However it is not the first time a woman has faced child pornography charges.
Audrey Black was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 in Moose Jaw after she pleaded guilty to sexual interference involving two young girls.
Her husband, Donald Black, was sentenced to eight years for sexual exploitation and making child pornography.
Crown Prosecutor Lana Morelli said there can be a “shock factor” when a woman is accused of crimes against kids.
“Rightly or wrongly, we hold women to a higher standard of protecting children. So when a woman is engaged in child pornography related offences we feel shocked and outraged by that conduct,” Morelli said.
Morelli started ICE prosecutions in 2013. She can remember only one case where female counterparts were involved in a man’s offence, but the women were prosecuted outside of Canada.
Morelli said the pandemic and a lack of community support are the reasons for a spike in internet offences.
“Usually we see male offenders and now we're starting to see female offenders. I think they've always been there, we're just seeing more of it now because of the isolation of the pandemic,” Morelli said.
Correction:
This story has been corrected from a previous version. The recent cases are not the first time a woman has been charged with child pornography offences in Saskatchewan.
