THUNDER BAY — A man with several convictions relating to child pornography has been sentenced to eight months in custody for breaching a prohibition and release order for a third time.
Mark Philip Lehtonen, 39, appeared before Justice Chantal Brochu in a Thunder Bay Courtroom on Friday where he pleaded guilty to one count of breaching a prohibition order requiring him to use his real name in any online communications and one count of failing to comply with a release order prohibiting him from possessing any device capable of taking digital photographs.
“It seems as though he is not learning his lesson,” Brochu said.
According to an agreed statement of facts, in August 2021 the Thunder Bay Police Service was contacted by a woman advising that she had been communicating online with an individual she later learned was Lehtonen.
Lehtonen had been using several social media accounts, a dating website, and email addresses with pseudonyms instead of his real name.
The investigators recognized Lehtonen from his profile picture associated with the accounts and he was charged in September 2021.
The second failure to comply charge in December 2022 resulted from an investigation by the Thunder Bay Police Service after officers were contacted by the John Howard Society.
A bail case manager at the John Howard Society informed officers that a digital camera and several memory cards were located in Lehtonen’s room. Because he was under a release order not to possess any device capable of taking digital photographs, Lehtonen was placed under arrest and charged.
The prohibition and release orders followed convictions for possession of child pornography, extortion, and voyeurism charges in 2015. Lehtonen received a sentence of more than one year in custody.
The charges date back to 2013. At the time Lehtonen was employed as an early childhood educator. His certificate of registration with the College of Early Childhood Educators was revoked in 2016.
Lehtonen was arrested twice in June and July 2020 on charges of breaching a prohibition order and accessing child pornography.
In March 2021, Lehtonen was arrested again on charges relating to possession of child pornography and sharing an intimate image without consent.
Both the Crown and defense counsel agreed incarceration was warranted for the latest breaches but differed on the length of sentence.
Defense counsel George Joseph asked for a sentence of five months, less time served, while Crown attorney Lillian Taylor was seeking 12 months.
Joseph argued that the woman Lehtonen was communicating with was 27, and not a minor.
“I would be in a much different situation if that complainant was a child, but she was not, she was a 27-year-old adult,” Joseph said.
Joseph also added that no indecent images were found on the camera or memory cards seized by police from Lehtonen’s room.
Taylor argued the fact that this is not the first time Lehtonen has been found breaching these release and prohibition orders is an aggravating factor in this case.
“In these instances, it is a positive there was no harm done to any minors,” she said. “But the very purpose of this prohibition order is to prevent that harm but what happened was a clear breach.”
Brochu agreed that this being Lehtonen’s third time breaching these orders is a significant aggravating factor.
“Mr. Lehtonen seems to have issue with his ability to respect court made orders and remain off the internet in aspects where it is dangerous for him to get involved in,” she said.
And while the complainant in the breach of the prohibition order was an adult, Brochu said it may be a less aggravating factor but is not a mitigating factor.
“It is still aggravating that Mr. Lehtonen is before the court for the third time. It is not the second time. This is his third time,” she said.
“He knows there is a reason why he needs to tell people who he is. He knows it’s because of the criminal record and because of his past. And yet, he continues to do so. He continues to have the public believe it is communicating with someone else other than himself, which is a danger.”
Brochu did commend Lehtonen for his pleas of guilt and taking responsibility for his actions but she ultimately ruled a sentence of eight months in custody fits the principals of denunciation and deterrence.
“An eight-month sentence sends a view that this is unacceptable,” she said. “That should he continue to disobey court orders, he will simply continue to increase his stay in his Majesty’s facilities.”
With pre-sentence custody credited at 105 days, Lehtonen will serve an additional 135 days that will be followed by two years probation. The same prohibition and release orders will also remain in place.
