Whisper
July 11th, 2006, 01:21 PM
An American man has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after going to Canada to have sex with a 12-year-old boy from Saskatchewan.
Elisha Pasdeck, 31, of Nokomis, Ill., was given the maximum penalty under American law after pleading guilty to the charge of foreign travel to engage in sex with a child.
He was sentenced in a U.S. court in Springfield, Ill. after pleading guilty in March. The boy is from Rosetown, Sask.
John Childress, the assistant U.S. attorney general who prosecuted the case, said the maximum sentence is an attempt to deter child predators.
The sentence is all about "sending a strong message to others that if you exploit minor children, you will be prosecuted and you will forfeit your freedom," he said.
Childress said he is pleased with the sentence but saddened.
"I recognize that what Mr. Pasdeck did will cause repercussions for the victim for a very long time."
He said the court cannot change the impact on the victim.
Pasdeck was immediately taken into custody. When he is released from prison, he will have to register as a sex offender and report to a parole officer for the rest of his life.
Pasdeck first spoke to the Rosetown boy on the internet in 2002, and in July that year he flew to Saskatchewan to have sex with him in a Rosetown hotel room.
Nailed by boy's father
The boy's father called the RCMP. The police spoke to Pasdeck, but decided there was not enough evidence to lay charges. More than three years later, he was charged for the crime in Illinois.
In May 2005, Pasdeck was stopped by customs officials in St. John's, N.L., after authorities found child pornography on his laptop computer. They found thousands of graphic and disturbing images of young boys.
He was arrested, charged and pleaded guilty later that year to possession of child pornography and attempting to smuggle pornography into the country. Pasdeck spent six months in a Newfoundland jail for those crimes.
Authorities learned of the relationship between Pasdeck and the Saskatchewan boy during his time in Newfoundland.
After serving his Newfoundland sentence, he was sent back to the U.S. Once there, investigators uncovered further evidence supporting the allegation that Pasdeck and the boy had been communicating extensively over the internet.
He was charged in January this year for travelling with the intent of engaging in sex with a minor.
Pasdeck, after serving his current sentence and registering as a sex offender, will have to install filtering software on his computer to block websites that are sexual in nature. It is not known if he will have a chance at parole.
Elisha Pasdeck, 31, of Nokomis, Ill., was given the maximum penalty under American law after pleading guilty to the charge of foreign travel to engage in sex with a child.
He was sentenced in a U.S. court in Springfield, Ill. after pleading guilty in March. The boy is from Rosetown, Sask.
John Childress, the assistant U.S. attorney general who prosecuted the case, said the maximum sentence is an attempt to deter child predators.
The sentence is all about "sending a strong message to others that if you exploit minor children, you will be prosecuted and you will forfeit your freedom," he said.
Childress said he is pleased with the sentence but saddened.
"I recognize that what Mr. Pasdeck did will cause repercussions for the victim for a very long time."
He said the court cannot change the impact on the victim.
Pasdeck was immediately taken into custody. When he is released from prison, he will have to register as a sex offender and report to a parole officer for the rest of his life.
Pasdeck first spoke to the Rosetown boy on the internet in 2002, and in July that year he flew to Saskatchewan to have sex with him in a Rosetown hotel room.
Nailed by boy's father
The boy's father called the RCMP. The police spoke to Pasdeck, but decided there was not enough evidence to lay charges. More than three years later, he was charged for the crime in Illinois.
In May 2005, Pasdeck was stopped by customs officials in St. John's, N.L., after authorities found child pornography on his laptop computer. They found thousands of graphic and disturbing images of young boys.
He was arrested, charged and pleaded guilty later that year to possession of child pornography and attempting to smuggle pornography into the country. Pasdeck spent six months in a Newfoundland jail for those crimes.
Authorities learned of the relationship between Pasdeck and the Saskatchewan boy during his time in Newfoundland.
After serving his Newfoundland sentence, he was sent back to the U.S. Once there, investigators uncovered further evidence supporting the allegation that Pasdeck and the boy had been communicating extensively over the internet.
He was charged in January this year for travelling with the intent of engaging in sex with a minor.
Pasdeck, after serving his current sentence and registering as a sex offender, will have to install filtering software on his computer to block websites that are sexual in nature. It is not known if he will have a chance at parole.