POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 81 Then, in 2004, a U.S. federal appeals court overturned that ruling and upheld the charges against Mr. Kline. "No law enforcement agency involved in the case knew or could possibly have known that Willman was illegally searching computers, let alone acquiesced in the practice," the appeal judges ruled. Mr. Kline, who had been forced to withdraw from a re-election bid, later entered a guilty plea on child-porno-graphy charges. At the judge's sentencing hearing, prosecutor Gregory Staples urged a 33-month term, arguing that "to sentence the defendant to anything other than a long term in prison would signal that our justice system treats its own with favour," the Orange County Register reported. "Of all people in society who must be held strictly accountable for their crimes, it is members of the justice system themselves." Mr. Staples charged that Mr. Kline had "sullied the state judiciary." When the 27-month sentence was announced, Mr. Kline -- who has a heart condition -- slumped to the courtroom floor, but later recovered. Dubbed "Citizen Tipster" by authorities, Mr. Willman's identity was initially kept secret, even in police affidavits. Then, in June 2002, the Citizen unmasked the mystery hacker, identifying him as a then-19-year-old loner who hunted online predators from a basement room in his parents' suburban Vancouver home. Mr. Willman, whose online handle was "Omni-Potent," used a Trojan Horse program disguised as a lurid image to gain control of any computer that downloaded it. He eventually penetrated about 3,000 personal computers around the world. Mr. Willman said at the time he had no friends at school and spent nearly all of his free time at the computer, chewing sour candies as he hunted for pedophiles. He catalogued each target's file by degree of risk, and focused on suspected child-porn producers and molesters. "I would stay up late at night to see what I could drag out of their computers, which turned out to be more than I expected," Mr. Willman told the Citizen in 2002. "I could read all of their e-mails without them knowing ... I could see who they were chatting with and read what they were saying as they typed. I judged these people by reading their incoming and outgoing e-mails. I was more interested in actual abusers or producers. That was my priority -- not the people that were just downloading images." After reading Mr. Kline's electronic diary, he concluded that it showed an apparent plot to sexually exploit young boys at a private health club. U.S. detectives have credited Mr. Willman with cracking the case. "The diary he retrieved gave us the probability that we needed to get the search warrant," California Det. Ronald Carr said early on in the case. The search warrant unearthed more than 100 images of young children engaged in sex acts. Mr. Kline's journal entries from 2000 and 2001 detailed the judge's sexual urges and the times and places where he met young boys. The judge, a Little League umpire at the time, had contact with several boys at ball games, in a mall and at a private health club, where he befriended vulnerable boys with the hopes of exploiting them. "You can't just charge in like you did with (a boy)," said one entry dated June 6, 2000. "How do I encourage him without pursuing him too hard?" The next day, the judge wrote to himself: "I gave a lot of thought today about this business of approaching these kids too fast ... He doesn't strike me as a lonely boy... You have to make them come to you or it just doesn't work." Mr. Willman's central role in the Kline case has kept legal experts debating his actions ever since. In 2005, University of British Columbia business professor Hasan Cavusoglu told Maclean's that the Langley youth's hacking to expose suspected pedophiles could invite "other prosecutors to attempt to use evidence obtained by illegal means in other trials." But the University of Toronto's Richard Owens, executive director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy, said at the time: "We may need to set certain limits, but for the moment it's unrestricted and the risks, in this case, are balanced by the benefits of prosecuting a potential child predator." Today, Mr. Willman says he lives with his parents and works independently repairing and maintaining computers; his hacking prowess proved no ticket to high-tech riches. "I don't have any big, fancy job." P.E.I. Child porn charges earn man six months in jail http://moncton101.spaces.live.com David Brian Best, 45, of Kensington, P.E.I., has been sentenced to more than six months in jail on child porn-related charges that included taking pictures of teenage boys. (...cont’d) (cont’d...)
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