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”His conduct had the effect of showing it is possible to buy a police officer,” the judge said.

”Trial evidence verified that Mr. Morton showed a very cavalier attitude toward the harassment of Ms. Taylor. He seemed to enjoy it.”

Mahoney said the sentence had to be greater than the community-based punishment proposed by Morton’s lawyer, Jim Lutz.

”The sentence must attempt to counter the public cynicism that may arise when offenders like Mr. Morton act as if corruption laws do not apply to them.”

Mahoney said all three officers were motivated by greed, even though McNish told psychologist Dr. Patrick Baillie he was acting out of a sense of misguided loyalty to former Calgary Police Service member Steve Walton, who orchestrated the surveillance of Taylor.

All three officers were paid thousands of dollars by Carter, through Walton, for their roles in conducting surveillance or supplying information from police databases.

Crown prosecutors Julie Snowdon and Leah Boyd had sought ever greater sentences for all three offenders.

They suggested Braile, 50, who has since been dismissed from the force for an unrelated matter, be sentenced to up to three years; McNish, 61, be handed an 18-month term; and Morton, 35, a four-year prison sentence.

But Snowdon acknowledged Mahoney gave Braile significant credit for revealing the stalking scheme to Taylor and turning against his fellow officers.

”It’s clear that he saw Tony Braile as being really instrumental in getting the investigation moving forward in the first place and in co-operating with the police and the other prosecution, and he was given significant, significant mitigation for that,” she said.

Mahoney noted Braile testified in the trial of Walton, Carter and Walton’s wife, Heather, who were convicted last October of charges in connection with the bribery/harassment scandal.

Lawyers in that case were awaiting Mahoney’s decision before making their sentencing submissions.

KMartin@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @KMartinCourts