May sentencing for man in child porn case

By Delon Shurtz on February 2, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

When police seized a computer and other electronic devices from Bryan Alas Hernandez’s Lethbridge residence, they knew they’d find images of child pornography.
Alas Hernandez had already been flagged by the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre, which works with internet and social media providers to track and investigate online instances of child sexual exploitation.
The 19-year-old was arrested last year and charged with several child pornography offences after investigators found videos and photos of children ranging from toddlers to teens in various stages of undress and engaged in sexual acts with other children, adults and animals.
Alas Hernandez, who moved to Canada from El Salvador in 2018, pleaded guilty Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court to one count of distributing child pornography.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, the Crown presented the judge with graphic and detailed descriptions of the pornography, but didn’t offer any recommendations for a sentence. A sentencing hearing was adjourned until May to allow time for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, which is expected to provide the offender’s history and personal circumstances to help the judge determine a fit sentence.
Another man, 27-year-old Brandon Bran Equizabal, who was also arrested between April and June in the same pornography sting, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of possession of child pornography. Details of the offence were not given in court, but a pre-sentence report is being prepared for a sentencing hearing in April.
A third Lethbridge man, Yonatan Castro Linares, 26, was also charged, but he pleaded guilty in November to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, followed by probation for one year. Additional charges of accessing child pornography and distributing child pornography were withdrawn.
All three men are among 18 suspects from Alberta who were arrested last year by ALERT’S Internet Child Exploitation unit (ICE), for a total of 65 offences related to online child sexual exploitation.

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