Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon comments on new legislation against child pornography, at a news conference in Ottawa
Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon comments on new legislation against child pornography, at a news conference in Ottawa, December 5, 2002. The legislation will protect teens from sexual exploitation and make voyeurism a crime. REUTERS/Jim Young

A Canadian young man pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography. He is the second man to plead guilty to child pornography related charges in this high profile case.

It is a 19-year-old man from the Halifax region, whose name has been protected. The man could not be identified as he was a minor when he committed the offence in 2011. The distribution of the child pornography allegedly led to the death of a girl. The man admitted that he had sent a child pornographic photograph to a couple of girls. Thereafter, the photograph was shared to numerous other people. The father of a girl, who later committed suicide, claimed that the distribution of the photograph was responsible for the death of his daughter. CBC News reported that a pre-sentence report is going to be prepared as the man will be sentenced on Jan. 15, 2015.

Another man, 20, previously pleaded guilty to producing child pornography. He had a conditional discharge earlier in November. According to an agreed statement of facts in September, the man photographed a smiling young man who gave a thumbs-up to the camera. He was having sex with a 15-year-old girl who was vomiting out a window when the photo was taken. The Crown later said in court that the photograph had not been taken with the consent of the girl who was not aware of the photograph being taken. The Crown has requested a sealing order so that the photograph cannot be viewed at the centre of the case again.

The Crown said that the accused admitted to police that he had sent the photograph to the young man who was having sex with the girl. At the same time, he said that he had not sent the photograph to anyone else. The Crown, on the contrary, said that the photograph had been seen by a large number of people. Most of them studied at the same high school as the girl in the photograph. The girl attempted to commit suicide in spring 2013. She was under life support and died soon after the life-support had been taken off.

The identity of the girl is protected by a mandatory publication ban.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au