'He ruined a lot of kids' lives': ex-wife of man facing child porn charges
Last Updated: Thursday, January 29, 2009 | 3:17 PM AT
CBC News
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The ex-wife of a man charged with making child pornography following a 15-month police investigation says it's about time he was caught.
Michael Gary Gilbert, 38, of Tracyville was charged with three sex-related offences on Wednesday, including sexual assault, sexual interference and making child pornography.
His ex-wife, Samantha Davenport, was in the provincial court in Burton for Gilbert's arraignment on Wednesday. She told reporters she found child pornography pictures on her ex-husband's computer nine years ago.
Davenport said she believes the charges against him are true and that he should go to jail for a long time.
"He ruined a lot of kids' lives," she said. "Most of the kids probably will not come forth."
Davenport said some aspects of her time with Gilbert started to make more sense to her after she left him.
"Things started coming back," she said. "It all made sense to me: why I was hearing these lies from the kids — which I thought were lies at the time but now make sense to me; why he would invite these kids over, get drunk and stay up all night with them."
Gilbert did not enter a plea to the charges on Wednesday and waived his right to a bail hearing on Thursday.
Gilbert back in court on Feb. 9
He has been remanded in custody until his next court appearance on Feb. 9.
The charges laid against him so far involve one man who would have been younger than 18 at the time of the alleged offences.
But an RCMP news release issued Thursday indicated additional charges involving other alleged victims might be laid. Police have been able to identify "numerous victims in their investigation" into Gilbert, the release said.
"The victims are male and female, of various ages, and most are from New Brunswick," said the RCMP statement. "All are adults today but were under 18 years old at the time of the alleged offences."
Court documents for the current charges allege the crimes took place between November 2001 and December 2004. Police said they involve two sets of photos circulated on the internet.
The Crown obtained a publication ban on any information that could identify the complainant, witnesses or minors shown in the photos.
The investigation into Gilbert involved the Toronto police, Maine State Police and the New Brunswick RCMP.
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