Bill Surkis, the former Quebec regional director for B'nai Brith, has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

B'nai Brith leader pleads guilty to child porn charges

Bill Surkis, the former Quebec regional director for B'nai Brith, has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

It's a stunning reversal for the well-respected member of Montreal's Jewish community.

Surkis, 70, was Academic Dean of John Abbott College for 22 years, in addition to being the regional director for the Jewish-rights group B'nai Brith.

In court on Wednesday morning, Surkis pleaded guilty to one count of accessing child pornography, and another count of possession of child pornography.

A charge of distributing child pornography was dropped.

Surkis was arrested in May 2009 and charged with counts of accessing and possessing child pornography.

The material was discovered in 2008, when Surkis brought his malfunctioning computer in for repair, and a virus check turned up numerous video and photos of child porn.

In all more Surkis's computer contained 86 videos totalling more than eight hours of video files, and 153 photos of children between the ages of six and 14 being sexually abused.

Surkis had originally planned to plead not guilty, saying he had downloaded the illicit material for a presentation on child abuse.

However prosecutor Cynthia Gyenizse never bought that argument.