KITCHENER — Natasha Bellefeuille is still mostly just disgusted by the child pornography she found on her new cellphone.

But after doing the right thing and turning the device over to police, her shock has also been compounded by frustration.

Almost a year after the $125 phone was seized as evidence, the Kitchener woman hasn't been able to get either a refund or a replacement from Wind Mobile.

"They keep telling me there is nothing they can do," said Bellefeuille, 21.

She bought the phone last January at the Wind store at Fairview Park mall in Kitchener.

A student putting herself through college, Bellefeuille said she was told by a salesperson that the phone had been used for demonstrations and she got a small discount.

When she got it home and began checking it out, however, she came across more than 60 images and one video of child porn that had been downloaded from the Internet.

"I don't have words to describe it," Bellefeuille said of the material. "It was gross and horrific."

She called a Wind number on her receipt and, she said, was warned not to take it to police or she wouldn't get her money back.

Nevertheless, she went to the Kitchener police detachment the same day, told officers what she found and was interviewed by a detective.

Police seized the phone for analysis and kept it as evidence.

It turned out the phone had been purchased by someone a month earlier and returned after about five days.

Const. Ted Rhab, formerly of the child exploitation unit for Waterloo Regional Police, obtained records from Wind and identified the phone's previous owner as a 33-year-old Kitchener man.

The man was charged within weeks with possession of child pornography and went on trial this week in Kitchener court.

When he learned Bellefeuille couldn't get her money back, Rhab took up her cause and spoke to the manager of the Wind store where she bought the phone.

Rhab said he got the same basic explanation as Bellefeuille — that she couldn't get a refund because she didn't have a phone to return.

"She did the right thing, what we hope people would do," said the longtime child porn investigator. "That's why we tried to help her. It's just not fair from her point of view."

Bellefeuille said she spoke to at least half a dozen Wind managers and went without a cellphone for two months before buying a pricier device from another company.

Memories of her discovery were stirred this week when she was called as a witness to testify at the man's trial.

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"I'm still going through shock," Bellefeuille said afterwards. "I'm still dealing with having to see that.

"It's something I've heard of, but I never thought I would have to deal with it. What if I had bought that phone for my little brother or sister?"

Despite her frustration and financial loss — not insignificant for a young woman in her situation — she has no regrets.

"I didn't care about the money as much as getting to the bottom of this," Bellefeuille said. "I just wanted whoever did it to get justice."

Still, she can't understand Wind's stubborn stand, especially after Rhab went out of his way to confirm the circumstances.

"It's really sad," Bellefeuille said. "I wouldn't want to be known as a company that sells phones with child porn on them."

The suspect in the case, meanwhile, took the stand to blame his brother for downloading the child porn while they were hanging out getting drunk and high.

"I'm not like that," he insisted. "I wouldn't look at that stuff. It's disgusting."

His story has likely delayed the trial for months while police track down his brother to see what he has to say and schedule court time for him to testify.

Wind vice-president Radek Krasny issued a statement late Thursday, expressing regret that the situation was apparently handled at "the store level" and not passed on to head office.

"We are taking this very seriously and we're sorry for the customer's understandable frustration," he said in response to requests for comment by The Record.

"We need to gather more information internally, but rest assured that we will be in touch with her promptly and will move quickly to make it right."