Facing the prospect of jail time, a former top Dalton McGuinty aide offered a note of contrition to the judge who will sentence him April 11 for the wiping of hard drives in the wake of the gas-plants scandal.

“Knowing what I know today, I would have acted differently as chief of staff,” David Livingston told Justice Timothy Lipson on Tuesday.

Prosecutors are seeking a six-month term for Livingston, a career TD Bank executive who headed Infrastructure Ontario before running the former premier’s office for 10 months at the height of the furor over the power plants.

“Only real jail will adequately denounce his conduct and deter others,” Crown attorney Tom Lemon said in his sentencing submission.

Livingston was convicted Jan. 19 of illegal use of a computer system for arranging a special password to have a private contractor clear hard drives in McGuinty’s office before Kathleen Wynne took over as premier.

Lipson called it a “dishonest” scheme to protect the McGuinty Liberal government from fallout over the cancellations of plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election.

During the trial that took place over three months last fall, court heard Livingston dismissed as “political bullshit” the legal powers of a legislative committee of MPPs to demand politically sensitive documents on the plant cancellations.

He took a different tone Tuesday after his lawyer asked the judge to grant a conditional discharge.

“I am sure my successors, literal and figurative, have learned from my experiences,” Livingston said.

“I apologize to my friends and family for the anguish I have put them through. I regret the time and money that have been required to investigate and prosecute this case,” he added. “And I apologize to all my colleagues for the strain of direct or indirect involvement in this trial.”

The two gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville were cancelled before the 2011 provincial election. An Ontario Provincial Police investigation began in 2013 and charges were laid in 2015.

Livingston’s lawyer Brian Gover argued the time since then has been arduous for his client, making jail time unnecessary as a deterrent.

“The ‎years of stress and loss of employment status . . . the disgrace and stigma he has suffered . . . will deter others,” said Gover, who introduced 28 enthusiastic character references for his client.

“I don’t think the court needs to worry about political staffers in Ontario behaving like this.”

For the Crown, Lemon said jail time is warranted because Livingston’s efforts to stymie the legislative committee and freedom-of-information requests were an abuse of power.

“It was not for Livingston or others in the premier’s office to unilaterally decide what the public should or should not know about the gas-plant controversy.”

Lemon said Livingston had “ample” warning from senior bureaucrats that his plan to wipe hard drives in the McGuinty premier’s office was a bad idea.

“He had no shortage of good advice.”

Although Livingston was also convicted last month of attempted mischief to a computer, that count was stayed, Gover said, because legal precedents prohibit more than one conviction on the same essential point, a concept more commonly known as “double jeopardy.”

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Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk has found the cancellations and decisions to move the plants to the Napanee and Sarnia areas will cost up to $1.1 billion over 20 years.

Opposition parties said the cancellations and moving costs prove the Liberals were willing to sacrifice public money to protect their own interests.

McGuinty was not a subject of the investigation, and he co-operated with the OPP.

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