Court Upholds Truck Search That Found Child Porn on Laptop
By Dan Herbeck, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Jan. 22–FORT ERIE, Ont. — Canadian inspectors at the Peace Bridge did not break the law when they turned on a truck driver’s laptop computer and found child pornography images on it, a judge has ruled.
William Leask’s claim that inspectors violated his privacy rights when they examined his computer and arrested him in September 2006 was rejected last week by Judge Joseph Nadel of the Ontario Court of Justice.
The ruling was called “an important decision” Monday by Jean D’Amelio Swyer, regional communications manager for the Canada Border Services Agency.
“It’s an important decision for our region, and we are very satisfied with the ruling the judge made,” D’Amelio Swyer said.
According to court papers, 33 child porn videotapes — including one showing a 10-yearold boy being sexually victimized by an adult male — were found in Leask’s laptop computer.
Nadel’s decision resulted in criminal convictions of possession and importation of child pornography for Leask, a 45- year-old trucker who faces sentencing March 19 in Fort Erie.
“[The] search of Mr. Leask’s computer was a routine border search for child pornography,” Nadel wrote. “It was no different than routine searches conducted, without any prior reasonable suspicion, for other forms of contraband.”
Leask, a Canadian citizen, was heading from Buffalo into Canada with a load of glass jars when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency asked the Border Services Agency to conduct a secondary inspection of his load Sept. 27, 2006.
Although inspectors had no reason to suspect that Leask was involved with child porn, an inspector booted up his computer and looked for suspicious photo or video files, according to court papers. The inspector found the illegal child porn files, and Leask was arrested.
Leask argued that inspectors had a right to turn on his computer to make sure it really was a computer, but he said they overstepped their legal authority by searching his files without having any “reasonable suspicion.”
“A computer is an item like no other,” Leask’s attorneys argued. “It is an item upon which a person can compose and save intimate or private thoughts, comments or materials.”
Government attorneys argued that searching the computer was no different than searching “any other item of his personal effects or the contents of his truck.”
Authorities said Leask is an Ontario resident but declined to disclose what town or city he lives in. He could not be reached to comment Monday.
dherbeck@buffnews.com
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