Man charged with distributing obscene material receives conditional discharge - Globe and Mail

A man charged in connection with incidents that took place at a Pitt Meadows rave in September, 2010, has been given a conditional discharge.

Dennis Warrington, who pleaded guilty last December to a charge of distributing obscene material, was sentenced Monday in Port Coquitlam. Along with a conditional discharge, he is to be on probation for 18 months.

Mr. Warrington had earlier been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography, which carries a minimum six-month jail term, but that charge was replaced with the charge of distributing obscene material.

He was one of three people charged in relation to events that took place at the rave, when a woman – 18 at the time – was photographed engaged in sexual activity with a man. Another young man, aged 16 at the time, took photos of the couple and then sent them to others, including Mr. Warrington, who posted some images on Facebook.

In statements to police and in court, the girl has alleged that she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the rave.

Shortly after the incident took place, RCMP held a press conference to plead with people to stop circulating the images and to come forward with information about what they had seen.

At a sentencing hearing last month, Mr. Warrington apologized to the girl in court.

The girl said she and her family are still dealing with the impact of the images going public and that she didn't believe Mr. Warrington when he said he was sorry.

"You're not sorry for what you did, you're just sorry that you got caught and you're sorry that you're sitting here right now," she said at the sentencing hearing. "You can tell the courtroom and everyone in it that you did it without thinking and that you learned from it and you changed – but I don't believe that either."

The young man who took the photographs – who has not been named because of his age – pleaded guilty in 2012 to distributing obscene material and was sentenced to a year's probation.

A sexual-assault charge against another man was stayed in February 2012, shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin, when prosecutors concluded they did not have enough evidence for for a conviction.