Court of Appeal for Ontario

Date: 2017-11-24 Docket: C61643

Judges: Feldman, Tulloch and Benotto JJ.A.

Between

Her Majesty the Queen Respondent

and

Robert Lysenchuk Appellant

Counsel

Tina Yuen, for the appellant

Jennifer McKee, for the respondent

Heard and released orally: November 21, 2017

On appeal from: the convictions entered on March 13, 2015 by Justice D.C. Shaw of the Superior Court of Justice, sitting without a jury.

Reasons for Decision

[1] The issue in this appeal is whether there was a basis for the trial judge to find that the appellant had knowledge of the child pornography.

[2] In our view, there was evidence to support the trial judge's conclusion that the only rational explanation was that the appellant had knowledge of the contents of the computer. The appellant had control of the computer and regularly used it. The police very quickly found vast quantities of child pornography, namely, thousands of pictures and videos on the hard drive and on the external drive.

[3] The trial judge found that there was no evidence that the home was occupied by anyone other than the appellant. It was therefore reasonable for him to conclude that the appellant had knowledge of the contents of the computer.

[4] Consequently, the appeal is dismissed.

K. Feldman J.A.

M. Tulloch J.A.

M.L. Benotto J.A.