KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A retired special-education teacher accused of stashing child pornography beneath a vent in his Kamloops, B.C., condominium has admitted in court to regularly watching adult pornography, saying it's something that all men do.
Jerry Waselenkoff is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops on a single count of possession of child pornography.
Court has heard the 66-year-old’s downstairs neighbour uncovered binders of CDs containing child pornography in his ceiling while performing minor renovations in 2012.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, Waselenkoff admitted to watching pornographic videos featuring adults online on a regular basis, saying it's common for many men.
He said an attempted 2012 study out of the University of Montreal had endeavoured to compare men who watch porn with men who don’t, but was halted because researchers couldn’t find any of the latter.
"They couldn’t find one man who did not watch pornography," he said.
“I’m not a pervert.”
Waselenkoff said he accidentally stumbling upon child pornography on a few occasions, saying he would mistakenly be directed to it while clicking on different links.
Some of the search terms uncovered by police on Waselenkoff’s computer included “Lolita,” “12 yo” and “defloweration.”
“They come up all the time,” he said. “You often see, ‘Lolita, Lolita, Lolita.”
Waselenkoff became visibly angry when describing his tenuous relationship with his neighbour who found the child porn discs, Franz Van der Woning, and described him as a “buffoon."
Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo asked Waselenkoff whether he believed Van der Woning was the one who stashed the pornography.
“I don’t think he did it,” Waselenkoff said. “I don’t know who did. I doubt he did. I don’t know what happened — I really don’t. All I know is there are certain things that, logically, I can’t make sense of.”
The trial is expected to end with closing arguments this week.
