SASKATOON — The Crown says a Saskatoon man who secretly filmed nude boys he met through a volunteer group not only victimized some of the most vulnerable children in society, but also cast suspicion on an otherwise admirable organization.
Justin Gerard Gryba, who is 27, pleaded guilty earlier this month to two counts of making child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography.
The charges stem from videos and images police found on two heavily encrypted hard drives seized in 2013, for which Gryba received a two-year sentence for possessing and making child pornography available to other users.
But court heard he had much more pornography than officers could initially access, resulting in the most recent charges being laid in September 2014.
Det. Sgt. Darren Parisien with the Internet Child Exploitation Unit said investigators discovered 12 videos taken by Gryba of two boys changing in swimming pool locker rooms and another boy using the washroom at Gryba's home as well as more than 10,000 child porn videos and images.
The name of the organization Gryba volunteered for is subject to a court-ordered publication ban. Gryba will be sentenced on April 15.
Parisien said the collection, showing sex acts performed on boys between one and eight years old, was significantly larger and more graphic than the content Gryba was previously sentenced for.
There were also thousands of victims in this case, whereas Gryba's first conviction stemmed from multiple images of the same child, Parisien said.
Crown prosecutor Michael Segu said Gryba showed a lack of remorse when he forced police to “scratch and claw” for information about the names of the Saskatoon victims and the locations where Gryba's videos were taken.
The offender put his victims' families through “emotional torture” by not disclosing what was on the locked hard drives and therefore dragging out the court process, Segu said.
“If Justin was really sorry, why did he hide the evidence?” one of the victim's mothers wrote in a statement read by the Crown.
The Crown asked for a five-year prison sentence, while defence lawyer Morris Bodnar argued for time served for the 19 months he has already spent in custody.
Bodnar said his client, who participated in sex offender programs after his first sentence, "has an illness" and needs to continue focusing on his rehabilitation.
Gryba has taken all the steps he can to try and change his behaviour, Bodnar added.
Gryba told Chief Justice Marty Popescul he now realizes watching child pornography is like being in the room during an assault and doing nothing to stop it.
“I can't even imagine the total hurt that I am responsible for," Gryba said, adding he hopes his victims can heal.
But Segu said Gryba, whose resume is full of volunteer work with children, showed a breach of trust that must elevate him beyond the average offender.
“My son really needed a male role model,” a mother of one of Gryba's victims wrote in her victim impact statement. “We thought we had found that in Justin.”
