Steven Alexander McEwen, 42, was serving a four-year sentence when he downloaded unauthorized apps and accessed written child porn in 2024.
While on day parole for a child luring sentence, Steven Alexander McEwen used his parole-approved cell phone to download unauthorized chat applications and to access websites with written child pornography.
His phone was searched, and his parole was suspended, after a child abuse image was also found in August 2024, a Saskatoon provincial courtroom heard on Wednesday.
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McEwen, 42, pleaded guilty to accessing child pornography and breaching his 10-year court order that prohibited him using social media and from communicating with children online.
In May 2020, he was arrested during an investigation into child abuse images being shared over social media.
Police determined that McEwen had lured 16 young boys into exchanging nude photos with him. He also had more than 5,000 child abuse images on his computer.
McEwen pleaded guilty to child luring, possessing child pornography and making it available to others. In 2022, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
His day parole was granted in September 2023 and extended six months later.
Crown prosecutor Linh Lê said it was important to outline, for sentencing purposes, McEwen’s history of sexual offences against young boys.
Court heard he was convicted in 2000 of sexually assaulting two six-year-old boys whom he was babysitting.
Lê said it’s also aggravating that McEwen downloaded messaging applications including Discord — the app he used to have sexual conversations with children during his previous offences.
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He also used a cellphone that had been approved for employment purposes to reoffend, court heard.
McEwen said he didn’t realize that written child pornography was illegal. Lê told court that reading child abuse stories perpetuates the supply and demand for child exploitation materials.
Judge Brad Mitchell called McEwen’s pattern of behaviour “very disturbing” before sentencing him to two years on the accessing charge, and an additional six months for breaching his court order.
The sentence, which the Crown and defence jointly proposed, will begin after his current four-year sentence ends.
McEwen will also be on the sex offender registry for 20 years and cannot be in any position of trust or authority over kids, or use any social media apps to communicate with children, for a further five years.
Legal Aid lawyer Gloria Faluyi-Ogieva said as a teen, McEwen was exposed to substances and sexually assaulted, which contributed to his criminal behaviour.
Faluyi-Ogieva said McEwen regrets his actions as “this has cost him a lot,” including his business, friends and most of his family. He wants to get his life back on track when he’s released, she said.
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McEwen, who appeared by video from custody, asked for a publication ban on his name, claiming one was ordered during his 2022 sentencing hearing.
Lê clarified that the ban was on the names of the complainants, not on his identity, and he withdrew the request.
There is no statutory publication ban in the Criminal Code of Canada that protects the identity of child sex offenders, only a mandatory ban on publishing information that could identify a child victim.
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