Sproull appeals child porn conviction, sentence
Joseph Sproull, the man who was sentenced to 15 years for child pornography and sexual assault last month, filed his appeal to both the conviction and sentence Thursday on the grounds that the sentence was “demonstrably unfit” and “excessive.”
The 44-year-old’s case dated back to 2021, when social media site Kik reported illegal images that had been posted to its instant messaging app to the police, who later found close to 500 images found on Sproull’s phone, some included children under the age of three as part of sexual activities.
In Justice Grant Currie’s decision, which found Sproull guilty on eight charges, among the aggravating factors that contributed to the sentence were that Sproull was “in a position of trust and control in the house which was the location of his spouse’s childcare operation” and the impact of his actions to the victims and their families’ lives “is substantial.”
In total, the appeal focuses on nine reasons that states the justice “erred in law and fact by failing to properly consider the totality of the evidence,” a “palpable and overriding error” in his judgement of that evidence and “failed to consider relevant factors.”
