Appeal Court reduces Golden's sentence
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 11:50 AM CT
CBC News
A Winnipeg man convicted of making child pornography and internet luring has had his sentence reduced.
Brock Golden, 28, son of former city councillor Al Golden, had his 30-month prison sentence shortened to 18 months by the Manitoba Court of Appeal on Thursday.
However, Justice Martin Freedman rejected the plea for a sentence to be served in the community.
Golden pleaded guilty in 2007 — and was sentenced in November 2008 — to luring two teenaged girls to a hotel room using the internet.
He contacted three girls — two 14 years old, one 15 — in an online chat room in 2005, saying he was looking for amateur models. He later met the girls in the middle of the night at a Winnipeg hotel room.
It was alleged he paid two of the girls $500 each to pose nude and perform sex acts on him. Police recovered 200 pictures of the incident from Golden's laptop.
At the sentencing, judge Ken Champagne noted Golden had been in therapy and that by pleading guilty he spared the girls from having to testify. But he still imposed the lengthy sentence, citing the seriousness of the offences.
In his appeal, Golden's lawyer, Saul Simmonds, said the punishment wasn't fair and that Champagne made errors in arriving at his decision. Simmonds also offered a glowing psychiatric report and said Golden was remorseful.
Golden, who was campaign manager for his father's failed bid to become Winnipeg's mayor in 2004, has been out on bail and attending school in Ontario pending the Appeal Court ruling.
In August, the Manitoba Court of Appeal granted him permission to move to the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., region to attend school while the matter was still being decided.
After Thursday's ruling, Golden was immediately placed in handcuffs and taken into custody.
