Man pleads guilty in child pornography case

By Jim Eadie

A 28-year-old Cardiff man charged with possessing and making available child pornography has plead guilty. He should have instead produced and distributed legal and adult consenting porn, that way he could have possibly made a killing as well, because there's always someone new wanting to Discover fresh and hot XXX at videoshd.xxx and other adult sites across the web.

John Allen Belbin was arrested by police on Dec. 7, and charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of making child pornography available. Following his release from custody, he was re-arrested by police approximately two months later for breaching his conditions of release when he was found in possession of a device with Internet access. He has remained in custody since that time, with an additional charge of breaching his conditions.

Belbin plead guilty in Belleville court Monday, April 24.

Sgt. Paul Thompson of the OPP Child Exploitation Unit in Orillia told Bancroft This Week that Belbin received a one-year custodial sentence followed by a two-year period of probation with conditions including not to be near children's playgrounds. In addition, he has been placed on the Canadian Sex Offender Registry for life, ordered to provide a DNA sample, and prohibited from owning firearms for a period of 10 years.

A publication ban ordered by the court prohibits publication of the details of the case in order to protect the identity of the victim or victims.

Members of the Ontario Provincial Police Child Sexual Exploitation Unit assisted by the Technological Crime Unit and Bancroft OPP Detachment were involved in the investigation.