(Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Trial underway for Lethbridge man facing child porn charges

Nov 2, 2021 | 1:09 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The first two days of a nine-day judge-alone trial have wrapped up in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench.

David Harter, 53, faces one count each of possessing child pornography and accessing child pornography.

The crown alleges that, between June 2018 and December 2018, Harter uploaded a series of child pornography images to three Google accounts.

The U.S.-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) informed Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) that Google had flagged the images for potentially showing nude images of minors.

LPS Cst. Jason Richmond was the lead investigator in the case, working at the time as part of the Southern Alberta Internet Child Exploitation Unit (SAICE).

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At approximately 8:30 am on May 2, 2019, Richmond, along with other officers, arrived at a basement suite on the south side where Harter and his sister resided.

The accused’s sister answered the door and informed police that her brother was in his room sleeping.

Richmond entered the room, woke Harter, and placed him under arrest on charges related to child pornography. The suspect was taken to the police station while the other members searched the unit.

Several electronic devices were seized, three of which allegedly contained child pornography images.

In July 2019, forensic technicians out of Calgary supplied Cst. Richmond with a report detailing their completed investigation into the devices. Contained on a laptop, a hard drive, and a thumb drive were, reportedly, the same images shown in the NCMEC report.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday with testimonies and cross-examinations of two of the other police officers that were part of the investigation.