Case of Leslie Griesdorf, DDS

Case of Leslie Griesdorf, DDS

Dentist - Toronto, Canada

Received an 18-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child pornography. Griesdorf was originially charged with making, importing, accessing and possessing pornography, plus obtaining the sexual services of someone under 18 years of age. This case involved the largest collection of child pornography in Canadian history.

If you have a photograph of Leslie Griesdorf, please forward it to The Awareness Center.

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Table of Contents: 

2003

1. Police charge four men with child porn offences, call for more resources  (02/07/2003)
2. 4 arrested in Toronto over child porn  (02/08/2003)
3. Porn palace (02/08/2003)
4. Toronto Police Chief Rips Feds and Courts For Difficulty of child Porn Arrest  (02/11/2003)

2004

1. Dentist strikes deal in porn case  (07/16/2004)
2. Dentist gets conditional sentence after pleading guilty on child porn charges (07/16/2004)
3. Porn doc 'hanging head in shame' (07/16/2004)
4. Easy time for a dirty old man  (07/16/2004)
5. No jail for child-porn collector' (07/16/2004)
6. Child porn dentist gets no jail time (07/16/2004)
7. Victims forgotten in porn cases (07/20/2004)
8. A simple click - and you're in big trouble (07/25/2004)
9. Police call for stronger child porn sentences (09/05/2004)

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Police charge four men with child por offences, call more resources

The Canadian Press

National News, Friday, February 7, 2003

TORONTO (CP) - Police have charged four more men - including a local dentist - in an international child pornography probe, and said Friday there could be many more arrests if detectives could speed up their investigation.

The men arrested Thursday under Project Snowball, the largest child-porn probe in Canadian history, were identified earlier in two U.S. child-porn investigations along with nearly 250 others in Canada's largest city.

More than 2,000 home-made movies involving adults having sex with females, some appearing to be young teenagers, were seized, police said. Also confiscated were hundreds of thousands of images contained on seven computers and a stun-gun.

Staff-Insp. Bruce Smollett of the Sex Crimes Unit said more suspected pedophiles could be arrested if police could lay charges based on a sampling of evidence.

Instead, investigators are forced to examine and list every picture and video image of child pornography, which Smollett says can take two weeks for each computer seized.

Smollett says more charges will be laid as his investigators track the evidence, and start to look for the victims in the pictures and videos.

Police say the ages of the victims range from two to seventeen years.

Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said he has heard absolutely nothing on repeated calls for a national strategy to fight internet-based child porn.

He said he'd like to see the age of sexual consent raised from 14 to 16, "which is more in keeping with the world standard." Fantino said he is also concerned that some material considered to be child pornography might be defended on the basis of its artistic merit.

"I feel there is no artistic merit whatsoever in the portrayal of the most brutal victimization of a child, the most vulnerable component of our society," Fantino told a news conference.

Police said earlier they have arrested only about five per cent of the 2,329 Canadian names on a U.S. Postal Investigative Service list of people suspected of accessing child pornography.

Project Snowball originated in Texas in 1999 but has since been expanded to include investigations by police forces in Canada and Britain, among other countries.

One name on the global list of suspects was that of legendary British rocker Pete Townshend, who claimed he paid to access the Web sites as part of ongoing research into his own suspected abuse as a child.

Townshend was arrested but later released. He has not been charged.

Before Thursday's arrests, provincial police in Ontario had arrested 32 people and laid 42 charges from a list of 267 suspects, while Toronto police had arrested 10 out of 241 names. Another 438 names are in Ontario alone, but outside the jurisdiction of Toronto and provincial police.

Every other province and territory is home to someone on the list. The vast majority - 946, all told - were in Ontario, followed by Quebec with 436 names, B.C. at 406 and 232 in Alberta.

Charged with making, importing, accessing and possession of child pornography as well as obtaining the sexual services of a person under the age of 18 was Leslie Griesdorf, 57, of Toronto.

Charged with importing, possession of and accessing child pornography were Ted Vanderklaauw, 53; Dalford Wrigley, 58 and Richard Palu, 31, all of Toronto.

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4 arrested in Toronto over child porn

Dentist, three others, in 2,400 names found on U.S. lists Police display seized videocassettes, photographs, computers

by Christian Cotroneo

Toronto Star - NEWS, Saturday, February 8, 2003, p. A04

Toronto police have arrested four men, including a 57-year-old dentist, on child pornography charges.

The arrests were described as the latest in an ongoing investigation known as Project Snowball, based on tips from U.S. authorities that produced a list of some 2,000 suspected Canadian owners and distributors of child pornography.

The four were arrested Thursday. Dr. Leslie Griesdorf, a dentist, faces 10 charges, including two counts of making child pornography and one count of obtaining the sexual services of a person under 18.

The others three charged are Dalford Warren Wrigley, 58, Richard Palu, 31, and Ted Vanderklaauw, 53. They face charges of importing, possessing and accessing child porn.

Yesterday at police headquarters, investigators displayed videocassettes, photographs, computers and Super-8 films that had been seized in raids on homes in the investigation.

Police wheeled out the material to demonstrate how much work is involved in child pornography investigations like this and to ask once again for more resources and better national co-ordination.

To build their case, police can't bring a few pictures and a movie to court. They must watch and document every image.

"It's inhumane to force us to go through this," police Chief Julian Fantino said. "We don't sample every grain of marijuana seed or every leaf. We do a representative sampling. I don't see the difference here at all. I think it's unconscionable to make people go through this."

"To go through one of those computers takes roughly 80 man hours," said Staff Inspector Bruce Smollet, head of Toronto's sex crimes unit. "We've seized 10 from one place."

Police say the four arrested in Toronto Thursday were included on two lists of suspected child pornography users seized by U.S. investigators and passed to police in other countries, including Canada and Britain.

One list, known as Operation Avalanche, includes names of more than 2,300 Canadians. The other, known as Precious Metals, includes 100.

The larger list stemmed from the prosecution of a Texas couple, Thomas and Janice Reedy.

The Reedys were found guilty of operating a child porn ring that rang in $1.4 million (U.S.) per month over two decades, dealing with 250,000 customers from around the world.

When they were arrested, police seized lists of names and credit card information.

In Britain, there have been 1,300 arrests from the list of 7,200. Canadian authorities are seeing even less spectacular results, arresting about 100 from the Operation Avalanche list.

The slow pace has prompted calls for a national strategy on child pornography, similar to ones they have in Britain, the U.S., Belgium and Ireland.

Few are more familiar with the list of Canadian suspects than Detective Inspector Bob Mathews, who heads Project P, the OPP's sex crimes unit.

"I went to Texas to pick it up."

Tipped off by a colleague who was in Dallas during the Avalanche case, Mathews pressed authorities there to hand over the names.

They gave him 2,329 on a CD-ROM, and Canadian police agencies began Project Snowball, an offshoot of Operation Avalanche.

The results have been decidedly uneven. Sometimes cases are just too cold to dig out- the suspect has changed provinces, countries or even names.

So far, Canadian and British agencies have only been able to pick off the names in bunches at best. "You have to make some very hard decisions," said Mark Pugash of police services in Kent, England.

"You can't go after them all at once. What you have to do is evaluate each one of these people according to the danger they pose to children."

Forces like the Toronto Police Service and the OPP have focused their early efforts on suspects who are likely to have contact with children.

Toronto's squad has made 14 arrests from a list of more than 200, while Vancouver police have yet to make any arrests among 80 suspects. Quebec's province-wide list of more than 200 active cases has netted zero arrests.

The OPP's arrest rate- 32 arrests out of 267 suspects, or almost 12 per cent- seems like a monumental success compared to the rest of the country.

Considering Project P's $1.3 million budget, its relatively high rate of success is even more startling.

Corporal Benoit Desjardins of the RCMP says there is a national strategy in place, and the RCMP is teaming with the OPP and other police agencies to map out a system that would share resources on every level.

"I've heard from no one," Fantino said yesterday. "The only reference I've seen with regards to this issue is what I've read in the media. Nobody's approached me. And that's very disturbing."

Griesdorf's dental office on Jane St. in North York was still open yesterday, although he is in custody, awaiting a bail hearing.

"He has never been referred to discipline," said Irwin Fefergrad, registrar of the Royal College of Dental Services of Ontario. "He's got no terms or conditions on his certificate."

In fact, Fefergrad said the dentist's file is remarkably slim considering he has been renewing his licence for about 30 years.

Once the college receives information it will launch its own investigation.

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Porn palace

By IAN ROBERTSON -- Sun Media

Canoe - Sat, February 8, 2003

TORONTO -- A secret bunker stuffed with more than one million images of suspected child pornography in a Toronto dentist's home is the biggest ever found in Canada, a lead detective said yesterday.

"This is the biggest collection of child pornography I've ever seen, certainly Canada's biggest ... and is classified as one of North America's biggest collections seized," said Toronto Police child exploitation unit Det.-Sgt. Paul Gillespie.

Some of the most revolting images involve boys and girls aged between 2 and 17 being penetrated with a variety of objects, he alleged.

Armed with search warrants Thursday, Toronto cops raided three homes, plus a Jane. St. dentistry office and the dentist's $1-million Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. area home.

STUN GUN FOUND

Computers were seized in all four homes. A stun gun was also found in one home, but police said its purpose is unknown.

Police found a 4 square-metre vault with seven locks on a thick steel door hidden behind a wood facade in the basement of the dentist's Catalda Ct. house.

Gillespie's team needed several trucks Thursday to cart off the contents.

"We started at 7 a.m. and spent 16 hours removing ... this really evil stuff," he said.

Gillespie said the porn vault and 18 other safes found in the home held 2,000 videos and films, 50,000 colour photo prints containing up to 500,000 images, plus a 30-year collection of magazines.

Gillespie said officers must spend between six and eight months reviewing all the films.

Despite some "disgusting" scenes officers had to view before laying child pornography charges, he said one film they seized upset him and his team. In a grainy 1970s 8-millimetre home movie, a little girl aged no more than five years was obviously being forced to masturbate a man playing "evil" doctor games, Gillespie said.

'VERY UPSET'

The flickering porn film shows the sobbing blond girl sitting in a chair while she uses her hands to sexually pleasure a man wearing a "medical coat," he told The Saturday Sun. "For some reason that movie is sticking in my mind ... she was crying violently and was very upset."

Gillespie said no evidence was found to link victims and the dental office, adding the man in the white medical coat in the 25-year-old film is not the accused dentist or any of three men arrested during this week's raids.

But investigators accused the dentist of making other films, a few allegedly with underage girls who police suspect are juvenile hookers.

Dr. Leslie Griesdorf, 57, is charged with making, importing, accessing and possessing pornography, plus obtaining the sexual services of someone under 18 years of age. Dalford Warren Wrigley, 58, Richard Palu, 31, and Ted Vanderklaauw, 53, all of Toronto, are also facing numerous charges.

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Toronto Police Chief Rips Feds and Courts For Difficulty of Child Porn Arrest

Only 14 of 259 known suspects in Toronto have been arrested so far

LifeSite News - February 11, 2003

TORONTO, February 11, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week Toronto Police discovered a huge secret bunker of over one million child porn images in the home of Toronto dentist Leslie Griesdorf. The dentist was charged with making importing, processing and possessing prohibited material. Three others were also charged. The arrests were part of Project Snowball, the international child-pornography search that also caught rock star Pete Townshend.

This latest find adds to the controversy over the federal government's many years of disturbing reluctance to implement changes to make it much easier for Canadian police to lay charges and obtain child porn convictions. The Feb. 8 Globe and Mail quoted Toronto's Police Chief Julian Fantino saying, "Regrettably, however, our lawmakers and some judges don't seem to appreciate the gravity of the crime as reflected in the lack of appropriate laws and sentences that seem to have become the norm in Canada."

The Feb. 8 Toronto Star also quoted the frustrated Police Chief's comments about the unreasonably difficult procedures required to obtain convictions under current laws. "It's inhumane to force us to go through this," said Fantino. "We don't sample every grain of marijuana seed or every leaf. We do a representative sampling. I don't see the difference here at all. I think it's unconscionable to make people go through this."

Fantino has called for a national strategy to contain the proliferation of child porn. He told a press conference that "No one's approached me and I've heard from no one... And that's very disturbing."

The Globe reports that, in addition to making the laying of charges much simpler for these crimes, Fantino has called for the following:

• The age of consent for sexual activity should be raised from 14 to 16.
• No child pornography should be allowed to exist on the basis that it has artistic merit.
• Child-pornography convictions should be designated as primary offences to allow collection of samples for the DNA databank.
• It should be illegal to advertise child pornography. Accused persons should be required to reveal the keys to encrypted computer files seized by the police.
• Internet service providers should be required to retain client information records and logs for at least 60 days.

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Dentist strikes deal in porn case

by Christian Cotroneo

Toronto Star - News, Friday, July 16, 2004, p. E07

A Toronto dentist arrested on child pornography charges won't spend any time in jail, thanks to an information-sharing deal he made with prosecutors.

After pleading guilty to downloading and possessing child porn, 58-year-old Leslie Griesdorf received an 18-month conditional sentence yesterday, as well as three years' probation.

He will spend the first nine months under house arrest and have filters placed on his computer to ensure that it's used strictly for business purposes. In addition, police can make random searches of his home without a warrant for the next 41/2 years.

Griesdorf, who ran a dentistry practice in North York, also agreed to give up his 30-year trade.

His lawyer, Daniel Kayfetz, would not reveal the specific nature of the information, or if some of it could lead to future arrests, but said the North York dentist saved investigators from combing through the bulk of his collection.

"There were all kinds of things on disc drives," he said.

"It takes forever to go through. He told him what was where in order to save them time 
and money with regard to the time it would take them to go through and search for things."

While some might argue the sentence was too light, especially in the wake of Michael Briere's recent confession that child porn led him to murder 10-year-old Holly Jones, Kayfetz says such comparisons are "irrational."

"That was his self-diagnosis," he said of Briere's claim.

"He was his own psychiatrist.

"Dr. Griesdorf was examined by one of the foremost experts in this field ... and that doctor said he is of low risk and of no danger to society, basically."

Much of Griesdorf's collection, he added, featured adults.

Originally, Griesdorf faced 10 charges, including two counts of making child pornography and one count of obtaining the sexual services of a person under 18. He pleaded guilty to two charges in exchange for information.

"Based on the law of this country, it's appropriate," Kayfetz said. "The guilty plea to the charge relates to somebody who downloads and collects the material but does not distribute it, trade it or send it out or communicate it in any way other than their own private, secret use."

Griesdorf was among four men arrested after Toronto police were given their names from an American child-porn investigation that tracked people who downloaded child pornography.

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Dentist gets conditional sentence after pleading guilty on child porn charges

The Canadian Press - Globe and Mail

Ontario & Quebec News, Friday, July 16, 2004

TORONTO (CP) - Toronto dentist Leslie Griesdorf has received an 18-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child pornography.

The sentence means he will not serve any jail time, but will be under house arrest, at least for the first nine months. After that, he has more freedom to leave home provided he keeps the peace.

The 58-year-old had been collecting pornographic material for several decades, but it wasn't until he had started to destroy his huge stash, believed to be one of Canada's largest collections, that the police came.

Outside court, Griesdorf was obviously relieved that he had avoided jail and said he was now a wiser man.

"The lesson to be learned is don't follow your Internet pop-ups," he said, referring to what brought him to police attention - buying child pornography through the Internet by replying to pop-ups, the advertisements that appear on most home computers.

His credit card information showed up on a list gathered by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation of more than 2,000 Canadians who had purchased child pornography.

They gave that list to local Canadian police forces as part of a continuing investigation known as Project Snowball.

At Griesdorf's home, police found a secret basement room that contained several safes full of pornographic material.

Crown attorney John Scutt told Judge Robert Bigelow of the Ontario Court of Justice on Thursday that police took 40 large bags of pornography.

In the 12 bags they looked through, police found more than 7,000 images of child pornography and some adult pornography.

Police also found 58 film reels, 30 of which depict children as young as four, and a collection of 1,500 to 2,000 VHS tapes of adult pornography.

At the time of his arrest in February 2003, police estimated they had seized about one million images of child pornography.

Griesdorf, who lost his practice after his arrest and had his licence suspended, disputed that figure Thursday.

He said he was not hiding the pornography, but was simply keeping it in a secure area of his home with his tax and bank records.

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Porn doc 'hanging head in shame'

Toronto Dentist Avoids Prison Despite Vast Kid Smut Collection

By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU

Toronto Sun - Fri, July 16, 2004

A TORONTO dentist who admitted to possessing "many thousands" of child porn images was given an 18-month conditional sentence yesterday. Dr. Leslie Griesdorf pleaded guilty to possessing and accessing kiddie porn after he was arrested at his $700,000 Catalda Court home in February, 2003.

At the time, Toronto Police said the 58-year-old dentist had amassed the largest collection of kiddie porn in Canada.

But in an agreed statement of fact read by Crown attorney John Scutt in court yesterday, the seizure was described as only "many thousands"of porn images in the 12 evidence bags containing videos, 8 mm reel-to-reel film and computer equipment police viewed.

Another 28 evidence bags weren't viewed by the police, so it's not known exactly how many porn images he held.

Justice Robert Bigelow agreed with the joint submission -- which also called for three years probation.

In the first nine months of the conditional sentence he is under virtual house arrest and police will be able to search his home and computer without a warrant in daylight hours for the next 4 1/2 years.

Griesdorf, a first offender, was assessed last year as a "minimal risk to re-offend," said Bigelow, noting the man had assisted police on "this investigation and others."

Griesdorf never produced nor transmitted porn with anyone, court heard. It was his private collection kept in a locked, secure room in his basement.

Griesdorf's lawyer Daniel Kayfetz said his client is "hanging his head in shame"and had his 35-year practice shut down abruptly once he was charged.

"Instead of remembering all the good things Dr. Griesdorf has done -- he looks after his 95-year-old father-in-law and 90-year-old mother-in-law (parents of his divorced wife) -- they'll think about this aberration," Kayfetz said.

When asked if his collection totalled close to the one million images police allege, Griesdorf said "no" -- but admitted he has been compiling porn here and abroad for more than 20 years.

"My mistake was answering a pop-up on the Internet and ordering from it," Griesdorf said in an interview.

The FBI recorded his credit card number and forwarded it to Toronto Police.

Griesdorf also possessed between 1,500 and 2,000 porn videos -- police only viewed 10% of those and only legal adult activity -- and had home-made videotapes of himself having sex with prostitutes.

Griesdorf said his bunker was simply a safe area where he stored his tax, banking and other records, as well as porn.

He said he only had sex with "adult prostitutes" and was in the process of destroying his collection when he was arrested. He agreed that he was "relieved" when police arrested him and seized the materials.

Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie refused to be drawn into a debate over the extent of the material seized.

"Because of numerous, ongoing investigations, I can't offer any comment on this disposition," said Gillespie, who has been investigating kiddie porn for five years.

At the time of the arrest, Gillespie called the bust "the largest collection I've ever seen."

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Easy time for a dirty old man

By MICHELE MANDEL

Toronto Sun - July 16, 2005

We're not serious about child pornography at all.

Not really. We may applaud Toronto Police as they make their busts, uncovering caches of disgusting filth that show nameless children in the most revolting situations imaginable. We may tsk tsk when we learn that even the most respected members of our society peddle in this vilest of child abuse.

But long after the front page photos in the newspapers have faded from our minds, long after the weary police officers have gone home with unspeakable horror marked indelibly on their psyches, the courts have their turn.

And what a mockery they make of this crusade.

Witness yesterday's farce. According to Det.-Sgt. Paul Gillespie, Dr. Leslie Griesdorf was arrested with the "largest collection" of child porn in Canada.

When they searched his home in February 2003, Toronto Police said they found a four-square-metre vault with seven locks on a thick steel door hidden behind a wood facade in the basement of the dentist's Catalda Court house. They needed 16 hours to remove 2,000 VHS tapes, between 30,000 and 50,000 photo re-prints, 185 8-mm films, 20 reel-to-reel movies, plus a 30-year-old magazine collection and six computer hard drives.

Police said some of the most revolting images involved boys and girls aged between two and 17 being penetrated with a variety of objects. One of the most disturbing, says Gillespie, head of the child exploitation section of the Toronto Police sex crimes unit, was a grainy 1970s 8-mm home movie of a 5-year-old girl being forced to perform oral sex on a man in a doctor's office. "She was crying hysterically. That's the one that I can't get out of my mind."

This was not the case of a casual browser who came across child porn by accident. The Toronto dentist was an insatiable collector, the kind of customer who creates the unquenchable demand for images of children forced into sexual acts. To satisfy clients like Griesdorf, more and more kids are being abused worldwide.

If we wanted to save them, we would crack down on the consumers. Dry up demand. Reach through their computer glare and scare these pedophiles to death with the spectre of jail time. Bring in real consequences that will make them think twice before they download one more image of child abuse.

If we really cared about protecting our children, child pornographers like Griesdorf would go directly to jail. If we were really serious about punishing them, he would face the maximum five years behind bars.

Instead, the dentist walked out of Old City Hall yesterday with nothing more than an 18-month conditional sentence. And what is even more enraging is that ridiculous "punishment" is the norm.

"I'm just frustrated to death," says Gillespie. "There's no way conditional sentences should even be an option. But it reflects the reality of what we're seeing in Toronto today ... we typically see very, very light sentences."

Because Griesdorf co-operated with police from the start, the Crown said they weren't seeking a prison sentence. They were also satisfied by a psychiatric report that said he was at a low risk of re-offending.

"This is a man who collected, made, distributed child pornography for 30 years," fumes Staff-Insp. Bruce Smollet. "Does he think he's just woken up and he's all of a sudden better? He's still a pedophile. To me, this is mind-boggling. And this is what we get stuck with day in and day out.

"This just makes the job so frustrating that it makes you want to pack up your tent and go home and just worry about what you can control. Because you can't control these judges -- they're a power unto themselves."

And so we have Justice Robert Bigelow sentencing Griesdorf to nine months of strict house arrest -- in his comfortable home. He can even have a computer.

What kind of message does that send, this light slap on the wrist for a man called Canada's largest collector of child porn? What does that say to those poor kids we've abandoned?

Until we insist on stiffer sentences, pedophiles will continue to collect child porn with impunity.

And more children like that sobbing little girl who haunts Paul Gillespie will be condemned to acting out their sick sexual fantasies.

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No jail for child-porn collector

Police upset with former dentist's sentence for accessing, possessing illicit material

By GAY ABBATE - COURTS REPORTER

Globe and Mail (Canada)

Friday, July 16, 2004 - Page A7

Former Toronto dentist Leslie Griesdorf had been collecting pornographic material for several decades, but it wasn't until he had started to destroy his huge stash, believed to be one of Canada's largest collection, that the police came.

Yesterday, the 58-year-old received an 18-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child pornography. The sentence means he will not serve any jail time, but will be under house arrest, at least for the first nine months. After that, he has more freedom to leave home provided he keeps the peace.

The sentence comes only weeks after Michael Briere made his chilling revelation that he sexually assaulted and murdered 10-year-old Holly Jones just minutes after viewing child pornography.

Yesterday's sentence has upset police officers whose job it is to stop child pornography, but none would comment publicly.

Outside court, Mr. Griesdorf was obviously relieved that he had avoided jail and said he was now a wiser man. "The lesson to be learned is don't follow your Internet pop-ups," he said.

He was referring to what brought him to police attention -- buying child pornography through the Internet by replying to pop-ups, those annoying advertisements that appear on most home computers.

His credit card information showed up on a list gathered by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation of more than 2,000 Canadians who had purchased child pornography. They gave that list to local Canadian police forces as part of a continuing investigation known as Project Snowball. It was the same international pornography sweep that led to the arrest of rock star Pete Townshend.

At Mr. Griesdorf's home, police found a secret basement room that contained several safes full of pornographic material. Crown attorney John Scutt told Judge Robert Bigelow of the Ontario Court of Justice yesterday that police took 40 large bags of pornography, of which they viewed 12 bags. In them, they found more than 7,000 images of child pornography and some adult pornography.

Police also found 58 film reels, 30 of which depict children as young as 4, and a collection of 1,500 to 2,000 VHS tapes of adult pornography. Mr. Griesdorf also had thousands of pornographic images on his computer, Mr. Scutt said.

At the time of his arrest in February of 2003, police estimated they had seized about one million images of child pornography. Mr. Griesdorf, who lost his practice after his arrest and had his licence suspended, disputed that figure yesterday.

He said he was not hiding the pornography, but was simply keeping it in a secure area of his home with his tax and bank records.

Judge Bigelow said the courts must reflect society's revulsion with child pornography. Those found guilty must be given "serious incarceration" he said, before explaining why jail time would not be appropriate in this case.

He said Mr. Griesdorf didn't distribute or make child pornography and co-operated fully with police.

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Local News

Child porn dentist gets no jail time

Radio 680 News - July 16, 2004 - 10:14 am

A Toronto dentist convicted of collecting the biggest stash of child porn in this country will not serve any time behind bars. Instead, the 58 year old will be under house arrest with three years probation. Police will be able to search his home and computer without a warrant. Dr. Leslie Griesdorf pleaded guilty to possessing and accessing child porn after he was arrested in February, 2003. The judge ruled since he was a first time offender he was a minimal risk to re-offend because he never produced or shared child porn with anyone. Griesdorf was caught by answering a pop up on the internet and ordering from it. The F-B-I recorded his credit card number and then sent it to Toronto police. Child's rights groups say such a light punishment may encourage abuse rather than deter it.

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Victims forgotten in porn cases

By John Derringer

Toronto Sun - Tue, July 20, 2004

HOUSE ARREST. That's what possession of some of the most disgusting, graphic child pornography imaginable will get you in an Ontario court. Nine months in jail. That's the going rate for abusing the children in your care for 13 years, including forcing them to live in cages.

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A simple click - and you're in big trouble - Lawyer says a curiosity-driven download changed client's life, reports Mark Bonokoski

By MARK BONOKOSKI

Canoe - July 25, 2004

"Let this be a warning to the curious. All it takes is one image -- even if it was downloaded unintentionally." -- Defence lawyer Daniel Kayfetz

Recently convicted child porn collector Leslie Griesdorf, the Toronto dentist who kept his dirty secrets locked in a vault within his $700,000 home, might still be adding to his "many thousands" of porn images today if not for one mistake.

"My mistake was answering a pop-up on the Internet, and (then) ordering from it," he said.

As it was revealed in court, the FBI managed to record his credit card number, then forwarded it to the Toronto Police and, after 20 years of quietly adding to his vast collection of kiddie smut, Griesdorf suddenly found that his jig was up.

"Porn doc 'hanging head in shame,' " the headline read, the "shame" quote coming from his lawyer, Daniel Kayfetz.

An innocent click

But, Griesdorf aside, what if there was no credit card purchase that could be tracked? What if an unsolicited e-mail was casually opened, or a link to a misrepresented Web site was innocently clicked, and an unwanted image of a prepubescent female child performing oral sex on an adult male suddenly appeared on the computer screen?

And what if that image was immediately deleted?

Would the police still come knocking?

Well, it appears they could. Seven months ago, a 34-year-old Toronto man was arrested at his place of work, handcuffed in view of all, and hauled off by the Toronto sex crimes squad acting on information received from the United States Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

That man, now accused of being in possession of child pornography, is also a client of Daniel Kayfetz.

According to disclosure documents in Kayfetz's possession, the U.S. task force sent Toronto's sex crime unit a total of six computer disks, each one outlining six separate investigations into child pornography involving Internet subscribers within Toronto's jurisdictions.

Kayfetz's client was the focus of one of those investigations and, according to the disclosure documents, the U.S. task force had him pegged as being in possession of "an image" involving child pornography -- one picture from the infamous "Helen and Gavin" series seized in 1998 following the arrest and 12-year imprisonment of British pedophile Gary Salt, and the bust-up of a worldwide Internet pedophile ring known as the Wonderland Club.

In other words, Kayfetz's client was arrested for the alleged possession of a single picture. Not thousands as in the case of Dr. Griesdorf, just one.

"As unbelievable as it might sound, his arrest was based on one image," said Kayfetz. "Not an image that was purchased on a credit card, but an image that is still out there somewhere in cyberspace, and on a shared file.

"And he claims he deleted it immediately when he realized what it was. But you cannot delete something on a computer, at least not completely.

"It's always there," he said. "Somewhere."

It will be months, if not years, before this case gets to the trial stage but, according to Kayfetz, the public should know now that it is only a matter of time before even the curious could very well find themselves in the same predicament.

"If you buy (child porn) on a credit card, then for sure the police will eventually be at your door," said Kayfetz. "Tracing Internet addresses takes a little longer, but it doesn't take forever.

"Police cannot differentiate between curiosity and collecting," he said. "And, obviously, one image is all it takes to find yourself publicly facing what is probably the most shameful charge there is."

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Police call for stronger child porn sentences

CTV.ca News - September 5, 2004

With Ottawa expected to reintroduce new child porn legislation soon, critics are keeping up the pressure for increases in minimum sentences. Many people convicted of such crimes end up serving no jail time.

Toronto dentist Leslie Griesdorf represented one such recent case. A respected professional, he was caught with thousands of images of child porn on his home computer -- some of children as young as two.

Griesdorf's case came to the headlines in July, when he received an 18-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child pornography. He was given house arrest, but no jail time.

Such a sentence is not uncommon in Canada, and those working to protect children say it's time the law changed.

"The practical reality is we say to people when we give them a conditional sentence, you've sexually exploited a child, now go home and watch TV," says David Butt, a former prosecutor. "That's not good enough. Jail has to be a message."

It's a view shared by police. They want minimum sentences that include jail time for anyone convicted of possessing child porn.

Police say users are well aware a conviction likely won't mean any jail time, and they watch them discuss this openly on the Internet.

"It's not a strong deterrent," says Det.-Insp. Angie Howe of the Ontario Provincial Police. "It doesn't scare them away from offending, and that is certainly our concern."

But defence lawyer Walter Fox says minimum sentences for child porn would be create some difficulties.

"You won't be able to distinguish between the makers of the pornography, the distributors of the pornography, and someone who is merely curious and has wandered into the field for one occasion," Fox told CTV News.

During the election campaign, Conservatives accused Paul Martin of being soft on child porn.

Now, Ottawa has plans to reintroduce new child porn legislation, but won't say if minimum sentences are part of it.

However, an earlier version of the bill, which did not pass before the election was called, included increased maximum sentences for child-related offences.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said the government's commitment is to child protection laws.

With a report from CTV's Jed Kahane

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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." –– Margaret Mead

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