A veteran Peel Regional Police officer who investigated sex crimes against children and most recently headed up the technological crimes unit has admitted to watching 241 child pornography videos stored as evidence from police investigations.

Former detective Craig Wattier, 52, who had been on the force for 30 years, was charged in May 2015 with five counts relating to fraud, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography.

He pleaded guilty Tuesday to two of those charges — breach of trust for using his position as the tech crimes unit supervisor to access a special electronic evidence vault containing seized child pornography, and fraud for falsely claiming $28,000 in overtime, paid duty and concurrent payments from the police and the Criminal Intelligence Service of Ontario.

The remaining charges were withdrawn.

According to the agreed statement of facts filed with the court, Wattier accessed 750 files related to child sexual abuse material. Of those, 241 meet the criminal standard for child pornography according to the police, though other videos would be classified by investigators as “age difficult” or “child nudity.”

He sometimes claimed overtime for hours it was later discovered he spent watching these videos.

Only officers working in the child exploitation unit and in the technological crimes unit have access to the server where the sensitive material is stored.

Wattier was not trained to do computer analysis and did no work that would require him to view these videos, prosecutor Allison Dellandrea said.

The first time the videos were accessed was in May 2013, the first week Wattier became the administrative supervisor of the technological crimes unit.

He spent 38 minutes viewing videos on that day after his shift ended.

Five videos were chosen as a representative sample of the five hours and forty minutes of videos watched by Wattier on eleven days between 2013 and 2015, according to the agreed statement of facts.

The content of each video, depicting the sexual abuse of young children, both male and female, was described to the court in graphic detail.

They were played for the judge only on a laptop in the courtroom as Wattier sat, eyes downcast, with his family seated behind him.

Ontario Court Justice Katherine McLeod, who bit her knuckles as she watched the videos, later explained she watched the videos in the public courtroom so that her reaction to them could be observed.

Dellandrea argued a sentence of 18 month to 2 years in jail is appropriate.

Wattier has repaid the $28,000 he fraudulently obtained over a period of 11 years and returned a high-end Nikon camera and iPhone 6 he bought with police funds, she said.

Wattier “flagrantly abused the trust placed in him as a public officer, particularly his duty to the most vulnerable,” Dellandrea said in her submissions on sentencing.

Dellandrea noted that it was only through the investigation of the overtime fraud that it was discovered Wattier was accessing the child pornography videos.

“His conduct at this moment remains completely unexplained,” she said, adding that Wattier does not need to provide an explanation. But, she continued “the conduct in and of itself is inexplicable.”

“The normal human response to material like this is revulsion,” she said. “And there was none of that displayed.”

“It leaves a very large elephant in the room as to why . . . is there any explanation that can be offered?” said McLeod to Wattier's defence lawyer Kevin McCallum during his submissions.

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She said Wattier’s mental health issues and stress cited by the defence seem to be as a result of the charges and a death in the family. They do nothing to explain Wattier's actions, she said.

McCallum said he is not able to provide an explanation.

When asked by McLeod whether he wanted to address the court and specifically his motivation for viewing the videos, Wattier declined.

“I have nothing to say,” he said quietly. Approached by the Star after court, he also refused to comment.

McCallum argued that a conditional sentence of one year for Wattier is appropriate and would allow for community service. He noted that Wattier entered an early guilty plea and did not plead guilty to a child pornography-related charge. As a result he will not be put on the sex offender registry or subject to a mandatory minimum sentence.

McCallum told the court Wattier is “sorry about the shame he has brought on his family and the shame he has brought on the police.”

McCallum added that Wattier has been “completely ostracized” from the police fraternity, which is a lifelong punishment.

He said Wattier, who was suspended with pay until he resigned from the Peel Regional Police Service on Nov. 30, 2016, is now essentially unemployable.

“Peel Regional Police are extremely disappointed with Wattier’s actions. He was entrusted with supervisory privileges that provided him access to sensitive files and information, and he abused that trust,” spokesperson Sgt. Josh Colley said in an email.

In a statement Peel Police Chief Jennifer Evans said “it is shocking to think that Mr. Wattier breached his oath of office in such a manner. I am appalled by his actions.”

A comprehensive review of all the tech crimes unit investigations under Wattier’s tenure was conducted by Peel police and it was determined that none of the cases before the courts were impacted, Colley said.

An internal audit of the tech crimes unit was also done and new procedures have been put in place to prevent this happening again, he said.

McLeod will deliver her sentencing decision on March 20.