On-Line Pornographer Sentenced In Canada

A man who transmitted child pornography by computer was sentenced Thursday to 150 hours of community service in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in Canada.

Joseph Pecciarich, 20, of Mississauga, Ontario, also was put on probation for two years and ordered to receive psychiatric treatment.

Pecciarich was charged in 1993 after police started looking for sources of pornography available on computer bulletin boards.

Investigators said he would copy pictures of children from books and catalogues onto a computer, alter the images to remove clothing and arrange them into sexual positions. He then loaded them into a bulletin board.

The scenes involved adults, children and animals, police said.

The judge said Pecciarich shouldn’t go to jail because he had no criminal record and there was no proof he ever acted out sexual fantasies about children.