Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic information.

BELLEVILLE, Ont. – A sergeant in the Canadian Forces stationed in Trenton has been found guilty of arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child in addition to charges of possessing and making child pornography.

David Rodwell, a 57-year-old air weapons systems technician based at 8 Wing, was found guilty of the three charges by Justice Elaine Deluzio in court Thursday.

The trial earlier this year brought to light Rodwell’s journey into the darkest corners of the Internet in what he said was an attempt to understand, or research into, why people hurt their own children.

During the trial, Deluzio heard how on May 21 of last year, Homeland Security special agent Scott Beagles entered an online incest chat room posing as an air force mother of a three-year-old.

Rodwell initiated a conversation with the user. The conversation, which lasted about one hour, revolved around setting up a sexual encounter between Rodwell and a three-year-old child in San Francisco.

In her decision read aloud in court Thursday, the judge said the conversation begins with Rodwell asking is the mother is "active" with her child – meaning assaulting her. The conversation moves quickly into a graphic discussion about the rape of the three-year-old child.

Rodwell tells the other user – who he believes to be a woman – he can access military flights to fly to the San Francisco area. He suggested they meet somewhere neutral, to "get to meet and chat for a little so we gain each other’s trust, we both have a lot to lose."

The conversation ends with Rodwell saying he will e-mail the "woman" with his flight number. That e-mail was never sent and the arrangements were not followed through. Beagle states he did not receive any further communication from Rodwell between the date of the conversation on May 21, 2015 and his arrest on June 4, 2015.

From the computer seized from Rodwell, police found five videos and 33 unique images depicting child pornography. All images and videos clearly depict infants, toddlers and prepubescent children in various stages of undress. Several of them depicted the child being assaulted.

Hastings County Crown attorney Lee Burgess filed a disc with more than 4,000 pages of Internet chat logs showing Rodwell communicated mostly with users who identify themselves as mothers of young children.

"Almost all of the communications involve graphic, explicit conversations about raping and sexually abusing young children," said Deluzio.

"Several of the chats involve detailed discussions between Mr. Rodwell and users who identify themselves as mothers who are willing to rent out their children for sex."

The recorded chat logs establish that Rodwell received and reviewed multiple links to child pornography including a five-minute video of a toddler being assaulted.

"Once viewed, the video is impossible to forget," the judge said.

Throughout his testimony, Rodwell maintained that he participation in the chat rooms was research he was conducting in an attempt to understand the abuse he suffered as a young child.

"In a lengthy attempt at self psychoanalysis he explained that he participated in the incest chat rooms because he was looking for answers and trying to understand why women sexually abuse children," Deluzio said.

The judge went on to say she found his testimony nonsensical and inconsistent.

"The salacious tone and disturbing content of these conversations and horrific nature of the images he views and comments on stands in stark contrast with Mr. Rodwell’s testimony that he would never harm a child," she said.

Further, in the thousands of pages of chats obtained by police, there is not a single conversation in which Rodwell asks anyone why they are involved in the exchange of child pornography. He maintained that was because most people he talked to were men posing as women.

Deluzio said people taking to the "dark web" to discuss sexually abusing children are "hiding behind the anonymity of their online profiles in the privacy of their own homes, but they are writing down their terrible thoughts and communicating these thoughts to each other via the Internet."

The communications, she said, send the message that sex with a child can and should be pursued.

The words, phrases and thoughts expressed meet the definition of child pornography, said Deluzio.

"The graphic, predatory nature of the chat logs entered as exhibits in this trial reveal a depraved, horrifying internet environment that normalizes the sexual abuse and torture of children."

A pre-sentence report with a sexual offender assessment has been ordered.

Rodwell is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15.

EMountney@Postmedia.com