EDMONTON -- A prison term of three years, nine months has been handed down to 46-year-old Wesley Darrel Vander Leeuw for internet luring and child pornography convictions.
Vander Leeuw was found guilty of arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child, luring and child pornography offences on Aug. 13.
At the sentencing hearing on Sept. 23, his defence lawyer proposed a three-year sentence. The Crown asked for five years.
In 2017, Vander Leeuw was arrested after going to a pre-arranged meeting place thinking he would see a mother and have an opportunity to sexually abuse her 11-year-old daughter. The woman was actually an undercover police officer and the child didn’t really exist.
As a result of further investigations, it was discovered that Vander Leeuw had actually been communicating online with yet another woman. It lasted for more than a year and included thousands of text messages. She was 29 years old, from Alberta, and she had two children.
Vander Leeuw was arrested again and charged with more luring and child pornography charges.
At trial, Vander Leeuw claimed that he was simply trying to conduct his own “crime investigation” and that his texts, later found to be written child pornography, were all done “for the purpose of investigating the sexual abuse of children,” according to the reasons for Judgement of Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Michael Lema.
Vander Leeuw was convicted on five counts that included making arrangement by means of electronic communication to offend someone under the age of 16 as well as the making of child pornography.
During sentencing arguments, Crown Prosecutor Tara Hayes stressed that the two separate sets of communications should be distinguished with consecutive sentences.
“We do not give away 'freebie offences,'" she told Justice Lema at Monday’s sentencing hearing.
Defence Lawyer Shawn King cited not only the negative media attention his client has endured in asking that he recieve a three-year sentence, but also spoke of the reaction and comments from responders to those online media stories. At least one, according to King, had the potential to be investigated as a death threat toward his client.
"To a certain degree there has been punishment meted out toward him before getting to conviction,” King stated during the earlier sentencing arguments.
Friday morning, Lema agreed with the Crown’s contention that the two luring offences should yield consecutive sentences.
He was not prepared to consider the many negative online comments; the media reports that preceded them; or the job losses that Vander Leeuw appears to have suffered subsequently as factors in his favour.
“Publicity is an ordinary incident of our justice system,” Lema quoted from another Justice’s decision.
Even with Vander Leeuw’s lack of prior criminal record, and seeemingly good character, Lema stated “I see limited mitigating circumstances here.”
As he wrapped up reading the sentence, Lema stated: "Mr. Vander Leeuw, I wish you the best."
Outside of court, an ex-wife of Vander Leeuw's attending the trial shared comments about her former husband, saying she felt she never knew him.
"To actually hear the details and realize it was more serious than you think it was, that was the most difficult part," said the woman, who cannot be identified.
She called some of the details that emerged during the trial "disgusting and disturbing."
"While we were married there was flags in regards to adult relationships and that was what led to the demise of our relationship," she said. "It's difficult, you think you know someone."
