Former Athabasca youth worker Jason Andrew Keough, who is in prison for voyeurism and possession of child pornography, has had his sentence reduced from 27 months to 18, the Edmonton Journal reported on Jan. 12.
Keough, 37, was convicted Jan. 24, 2011 on two counts of possessing child pornography, one count of voyeurism and one count of making voyeuristic material. He was sentenced in May 2011.
The charges against Keough were based on incidents that occurred between 2005 and 2008, during which time Keough worked at the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre, Edwin Parr Composite School, and later Alberta Children and Youth Services’ Athabasca office.
The original sentence, handed down by Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donald Manderscheid, was nine months longer than Crown prosecutor Diane Hollinshead recommended during sentencing arguments last March, and included jail time for voyeurism; which according to Manderscheid had never been done for a voyeurism conviction in Canada.
Manderscheid said Keough’s background as a youth worker would suggest he ought to be appearing in court as an expert witness, not a convicted criminal. “There is no possibility he couldn’t have understood that (his actions were) abusive and immoral,” he said.
As the Journal reported, two judges supported the reduction in sentence while a third wanted to dismiss the appeal. The reduction in sentence was based in the court’s decision that the two charges of possession of child porn were sufficiently similar to justify a concurrent sentence.
