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Former president of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Jailed for Possessing Kiddie Porn

Winnipeg Blue Bombers- that’s roller derby, right?

from www.cbc.ca – A former president of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years’ probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Ross Brown, 72, admitted to possessing nearly 5,000 pornographic photos involving children as young as two engaged in explicit sex acts, including bondage and bestiality.

He also had 30 videos and a “PowerPoint presentation on child pornography” on two home computers, said Crown prosecutor Tony Kavanagh.

“This is proof all types of individuals from all walks of life can and do become embroiled in this exploitative crime,” Kavanagh told a Winnipeg court.

“I’ll be carrying this burden of shame for the rest of my life,” Brown said, reading from a typewritten statement. “I want to express my deep remorse and regret for what I did. I truly appreciate and acknowledge how wrong my actions are.”

Ross, a prominent Winnipeg doctor and respected community leader, was caught in an international investigation that began in 2006 with an FBI probe of a child-abuse case involving a Georgia girl, 12.

The FBI discovered a website containing modelling-type photos of the girl and learned the administrative contact was listed as a “Ross Brown.” Brown’s street address in Winnipeg was also listed.

FBI interviewed the girl, who told them hundreds of graphic pictures had been taken by a family friend known as “Uncle Mac” during the previous year. Police identified the man as Georgia resident Wilbur Caldwell and charged him with manufacturing child pornography. Six other men — aged 22 to 52 — were also charged with raping the girl.

Caldwell, 52, quickly pleaded guilty and received a 15-year prison sentence under a plea deal with U.S. justice authorities. To avoid a much harsher sentence, he agreed to help authorities and gave statements that led police to Brown.
Member of Bombers Hall of Fame

Brown was president of the community-owned Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1988 when the team won the Grey Cup in Ottawa, then stayed on for another year.

He joined the Bombers organization in 1982 as a member of the team’s board of directors. Brown was also a member of the 1991 Grey Cup planning committee. He was inducted into the football club’s Hall of Fame in 2006.

As for his relatively short sentence, Kavanagh told court an administrative bungle forced justice officials to strike a deal with the accused. The prosecutor said Ross likely had a strong argument that his Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated by a nearly three-year delay in disclosing evidence and getting the case ready for court.

“This sentence is not based on the facts of the case, but on the unique aspects of the investigation,” Kavanagh said.

Winnipeg police and RCMP began a joint investigation of Brown in 2006, but the case got lost in the shuffle when they disbanded their partnership in the Integrated Child Exploitation unit, Kavanagh said.

Brown’s lawyer, Jeff Gindin, repeatedly demanded disclosure of evidence against his client without success. “Delay really was an issue here. There was a very real possibility of a judicial stay,” he said Wednesday.

Back story: December, 2006: A high-profile Winnipeg doctor, a former president of the Canadian Football League’s Blue Bombers, faces two child pornography charges, police confirmed Thursday.

Winnipeg police allege they seized digital images of child pornography from the home of Dr. Ross Edward Brown, 69.

The radiologist was arrested on Oct. 6 and charged with possessing and accessing digital images of child pornography.

But it wasn’t until Thursday that police confirmed Brown’s charges.

“We don’t want to compromise any additional persons either being involved or anything to do with the investigation. And that is the only reason why this information wasn’t released,” Const. Jacqueline Chaput told reporters. “It has absolutely nothing to do with who the individual is.”

Police said Brown was arrested as a result of an investigation by the Manitoba Integrated Child Exploitation unit, a combined force with investigators from the Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba RCMP. But police added that the unit had obtained its information from authorities in the United States.

His next court appearance will be on Jan. 16.

Brown was president of the Blue Bombers in 1988 and 1989. He was inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame in June.

Officials with the football club did not comment on Brown’s charges on Thursday.

Brown was released on bail and continued to work at St. Boniface General Hospital as a radiologist. The allegations have not been proven and Brown remains innocent until proven guilty.

But on Thursday, after further information about Brown’s charges surfaced in a Winnipeg newspaper, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority issued a release saying it was suspending Brown’s privileges.

Dr. Michel Tetrault, president and CEO of St. Boniface General Hospital, said he did not know Brown was also the target of an FBI investigation involving his alleged interaction with an underage girl in the United States in 2005.

“There was no documentation that there was any human-to-human contact involved before the story in the [Winnipeg] Free Press this morning,” he said.

The release stated that the authority “has no alternative but to act given the serious nature of the allegations.”

Authority officials said Brown was allowed to continue working at the hospital following the charges laid against him after he informed them of an undertaking stating “he would not be alone with children or access the internet at work,” according to the release.

Tetrault said Brown had not been around children in the hospital since Oct. 6 “without other people being in the room at all times.”

“These charges are the types of things that can happen to different people in different places in society,” Tetrault said, adding that he has no knowledge of this kind of alleged incident ever happening before in his hospital.

Jeff Gindin, Brown’s lawyer, told CBC News that his client was surprised and disappointed that he had been suspended from his job at the hospital.

Gindin said the health authority had agreed Brown would be able to continue working.

Winnipeg police would not say if Brown faces additional charges in the U.S. as a result of the FBI investigation, except to say the cross-border investigation continues.

Rosalind Prober, director of child-advocacy group Beyond Borders, said if the allegations of Brown’s interaction with the underage girl are made and proven, it could potentially be the second case of a Canadian being charged with committing sex crimes against children in another country.

Under Canada’s child sex tourism legislation, which was enacted in 2002, any Canadian committing sex crimes against children in a foreign country would still be liable for prosecution in Canada, regardless of the foreign country’s laws.

“Of course, we don’t know. These are just allegations of travel involving sex with children,” Prober said of Brown’s case.

“That would be a form of child sex tourism. The legislation on child sex tourism covers all the sex crimes against children, including child pornography offences.”

Vancouver hotel worker Donald Bakker was the first person convicted under the sex tourism law in 2005. He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault, seven of which involved children in Asian countries. He received a 10-year prison sentence for that crime.

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