A West 琉璃神社 man who was charged with child pornography is walking away from the courts with a clean record after prosecutors found their case to be lacking.
On July 4 the prosecutor charged with conduct of the Tyler Nowek file directed a stay of proceedings of all charges.
"The decision followed a thorough review of the file materials, current case law and preliminary hearing transcripts," said Dan McLaughlin Communications Counsel Criminal Justice Branch. "Following this review the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard could no longer be met. In these circumstances a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action."
McLaughlin went on to say that in B.C. a rigorous charge assessment process is employed and the criminal justice branch must be satisfied that there is a substantial likelihood of conviction and the prosecution must be in the public interest.
A substantial likelihood of conviction exists where Crown Counsel is satisfied there is a strong, solid case of substance to present to the Court.
"This test applies at all stages of the prosecution. If prosecutor concludes that the evidentiary standard is no longer met a prosecution cannot proceed," said McLaughlin.
"In this case the prosecutor concluded the first part of this test was no longer met and directed the stay of proceedings."
Nowek was charged with luring a child and making child pornography in 2014 after allegedly trying to lure an underage girl into a sexual encounter.
Police alleged that the 29-year-old was on an online chat forum in March 2014, when he came across who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, and sparked a conversation.
"The chat between the accused and (the) girl quickly became sexually explicit," said Sgt. Mat Van Laer, of the BC Integrated Child Exploitation unit, shortly after Nowek was charged.
Van Laer said at the time that Nowek's case illustrates how quickly and brazenly child predators develop relationships online with children.
It's also an example of how seriously the RCMP are taking any hint of sexual exploitation.
Explaining the charges that Nowek faced, Van Laer explained the definition of making child pornography in Canada is relatively broad, and its intention is to protect children from any sexual exploitation.
That means any visual or written representation of child pornography, or any writing that advocates or counsels someone how to take part in child porn are fodder for the charge.
"Whether it's fictitious or real child pornography makes no difference in Canada," he said.
In other countries, for example, Anime books that illustrate sexual acts with children would fall outside the radar of police, but in Canada they'd be illegal.
"It's really on the broader scope of the charge (against Nowek)
that this offence is listed," said Van Laer, at that time.
Nowek once was a partner in the business, the Ultimate Hockey and Skate Store.
After charges were laid, Nowek was released of all business operations, completely.
