A long-time Peel Regional Police officer who admitted to watching hundreds of child pornography videos seized as evidence from police investigations has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Craig Wattier, 52, pleaded guilty in February to breach of trust for abusing his special access to the electronic child pornography evidence vault and fraud for falsely claiming $28,000 over 11 years in overtime, paid duty and cameras bought for personal use.

He accessed 750 files related to child sexual abuse material, according to the agreed statement of facts. Of those, 241 videos and two images met the criminal standard for child pornography according to the police.

“To add insult to injury, Mr. Wattier accessed some of these files when he was off-duty, but charged overtime for his activities,” said Ontario Court Justice Katherine McLeod in her sentencing decision.

“It is, I believe, important to emphasize that the images gratuitously accessed by Mr. Wattier were shocking in their perversity,” she said, noting that she was required to view five of the videos. “The fact that someone who is not obligated to do so would voluntarily watch these images and in fact seek out more as Mr. Wattier did is deeply disturbing and frankly horrifying.”

Wattier was charged with fraud, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography in May 2015 and resigned from the police force in December 2016. The child pornography charges were withdrawn.

Over his 30 year career he spent time in the special victims unit before being transferred in May 2013 to become the supervisor of the technological crimes unit (TCU) which permitted him access to the child pornography evidence vault.

In his first week as supervisor of the TCU he accessed six child pornography videos with no work-related reason for doing so.

McLeod noted that there was no explanation provided for why Wattier committed fraud or breach of trust offences. His watching of child pornography was only discovered through an internal investigation into the overtime fraud.

McLeod said that Wattier has repaid the money he stole from the police service and that he has expressed that he has let himself and his family down, destroying his reputation.