Daniel Kressel pled guilty in provincial court on Thursday, June 30 on charges of producing and possessing child pornography in relation to a case initially indicated by RCMP to involve three children and three offenders in Powell River.
Wearing a black leather jacket and black pants with a shaved head Kressel nodded and quietly said yes as the judge asked him if he understood the charges and wished to plead guilty.
Speaking to the Peak, Crown counsel Ian Tully-Barr revealed the particulars of the case to dispel rumours and clear uncertainties.
RCMP began investigating Kressel after a woman with whom he had an affair came to them to warn police about him. Kressel, who was married at the time, had expressed to the woman a desire to engage in sexual activity with her underage child. The woman ended the relationship, after which she hacked into Kressel’s email account. While monitoring his emails she discovered Kressel pursuing similar sexual scenarios with other women.
Police monitored his email and discovered two ongoing affairs in which Kressel was expressing interest to the women in engaging in sexual activity with their children. One of the women, while rebuffing Kressel’s request for sex with her nine-year-old daughter, took nude photographs of her daughter and sent them to Kressel.
Kressel expressed an interest to the other woman he was having an affair with in having sex with her 14-year-old son. The woman said she did not want any part in Kressel’s interest in her son but nonetheless continued the affair.
Both Kressel and the two women were arrested on March 31 and April 1, with police initially recommending charges of producing and possessing child pornography, along with conspiracy to commit sexual assault. Police also found a small amount of commercially produced child pornography on Kressel’s computer. Tully-Barr said that the RCMP’s thorough investigation and arrests likely stopped a future sexual assault, even though the conspiracy charges against all parties were dropped.
The woman who took photos of her daughter for Kressel still faces charges for the production of child pornography and is due back in provincial court on July 20 for arraignment. The lone charge for conspiracy to commit sexual assault against the other woman has been dropped. The ministry of children and family development is still involved with the children and the names of both women remain under a publication ban to protect the identity of the children involved.
Tully-Barr believes that genuine remorse prompted Kressel’s decision to plead guilty, as the case against him was not open and shut from a legal point of view and he could have fought in court. Tully-Barr said that since the arrest, Kressel has lost his house and his wife and Tully-Barr himself has heard numerous threats against the man from people in the community.
The third child that police alluded to was mistakenly identified as a victim after Kressel told the woman who eventually went to the police that he had had sex with a previous lover’s child. Police interviewed the child and determined that Kressel had been lying about the incident.
Kressel faces a minimum of 90 days in jail for the production of child pornography charge and 30 days in jail for the possession of child pornography. Sentencing is set for August 24 following a pre-sentence report including a psychiatric assessment.
