WARNING: The details of this story could be triggering and difficult for some people to read.

A Calgary sexual predator who could be sent to prison indefinitely once provided a rare glimpse into the mind of a pedophile when he participated in a CBC documentary.

He told an interviewer there was no guarantee he would be able to stop abusing children despite his involvement in some of the country's most intensive treatment programs.

Kenneth Hornby, 59, has a 30-year history of molesting young boys. Most recently, in 2018, he sexually assaulted a five-year-old.

"We look at our victim as an adult, not as a child," Hornby told a CBC reporter in 1995. "That's the way a pedophile thinks, this young male wants to have sex with you."

At that time, Hornby said he had a "good chance" at not reoffending but couldn't make any promises.

"I hope deep down that I won't," Hornby said in the documentary.

His criminal record took a 22-year break before Hornby targeted his latest and perhaps youngest victim.

Last week, as part of a sentencing hearing, prosecutors Zailin Lakhoo and Vicki Faulkner asked Justice Suzanne Bensler to impose a dangerous offender designation and have Hornby sentenced to an indeterminate jail term.

Defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli asked the judge to sentence his client to seven years in prison, arguing Hornby's two-decade break in offending means he is capable of managing his criminal urges.

'I cannot be alone with children'

In the documentary, Hornby allows himself to be interviewed and explains the mind of a pedophile.

"I will be always attracted to young males," Hornby told reporter Leslie MacKinnon. "I cannot be alone with children."

He tells the interviewer how he targets his victims and the lengths at which he goes to groom them.

Hornby said he looks in "slumy" areas of a city for vulnerable, neglected boys who seem like they need a friend. At one point, he got a job at an arcade. He also preyed on children at public swimming pools.

Hornby's criminal history dates back to 1986, when he was convicted of gross indecency in Calgary for molesting two young boys, ages 13 and eight. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

'Most intensive sexual offender treatment'

He received the same sentence again in 1987 after convictions for sexual assault. Again, his victims were young boys.

Another sexual assault conviction came in 1992 with a 30-month sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy.

It was during this sentence that Hornby did an extensive on-camera interview explaining his participation in Canada's "most intensive sexual offender treatment programs," according to forensic psychologist Dr. Patrick Baillie, who prepared a court-ordered risk assessment report.

That's when Hornby's criminal record took a lengthy break before he was found guilty of possessing child pornography in 2017.

The next year, he sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy in an alley. Hornby has since pleaded guilty.

In the 1980s, Hornby, who is attracted to male prepubescent children, participated in hormone therapy and erotic preference testing while serving one of his sentences.

The aim of the programs was to treat Hornby's behaviour as an addiction that could not be cured but might be managed.

Despite extensive participation in various programs designed to keep Hornby from reoffending, the most recent court-ordered assessment found he is a "high risk for sexual recidivism regardless of further treatment interventions," according to psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Hashman.

"Further treatment efforts are likely to have diminishing returns given his previous extensive treatment exposure."

A date for Bensler to deliver her sentencing decision has not yet been set.