Retired teacher Jerry Waslenkoff is charged with possession of child pornography. He has admitted to watching adult porn on his computer, but denies discs with child-porn images found beneath his heat register belong to him. KTW file photo
A retired Kamloops teacher accused of stashing child pornography beneath a vent in his Sahali condo took time during his cross-examination on Wednesday to tell courtroom reporters all men watch porn.
Jerry Waselenkoff is standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court on a single count of possession of child pornography.
Court has heard the 66-year-old’s downstairs neighbour uncovered binders of CDs containing child pornography in his ceiling while performing minor renovations in 2012. The discs were found directly beneath a vent in Waselenkoff’s home.
Franz van der Woning said he found the discs in his ceiling while Waselenkoff was not home. Later, he testified, he heard rustling in the ceiling where the discs had been found.
Shortly after, court heard, Waselenkoff told van der Woning he wanted to speak with him.
In his evidence, Waselenkoff said he rustled around in the ceiling after van der Woning told him child porn had been found.
An RCMP investigator testified she viewed images from the discs and saw unclothed girls between eight and 15 years old, with a focus on vaginal areas.
The discs were made by a company called SmartBuy. Other SmartBuy discs were found in Waselenkoff’s condo.
During his cross-examination on Wednesday, Waselenkoff admitted to watching adult pornographic videos online on a regular basis, but turned to reporters in the courtroom to offer a caveat.
A 2012 study by researchers at the University of Montreal, he said, had endeavoured to compare men who watch porn with men who don’t.
Waselenkoff said it had to be halted because researchers couldn’t find any of the latter.
“They couldn’t find one man who did not watch pornography,” he said.
“I’m not a pervert.”
Waselenkoff did admit to accidentally stumbling upon child pornography on a few occasions.
“It’s happened once or twice where I’ve seen a trolling page,” he said.
“You click something and it takes you where you didn’t want to go.”
Some of the search terms uncovered by police on Waselenkoff’s computer included “lolita,” “12 yo” and “defloweration.”
“They come up all the time,” he said. “You often see, ‘Lolita, lolita, lolita.”
During his cross-examination, a fidgety Waselenkoff seemed to intimate van der Woning had planted the discs in the ceiling. But, when asked directly by Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo whether that was his theory, he backed off.
“I don’t think he did it,” Waselenkoff said. “I don’t know who did. I doubt he did. I don’t know what happened — I really don’t. All I know is there are certain things that, logically, I can’t make sense of.”
Caputo pressed Waselenkoff again, asking if he thought van der Woning was involved.
“Probably not,” Waselenkoff replied. “Maybe I leave one per cent there, but definitely not saying, ‘Well, he’s the one.’”
Waselenkoff described van der Woning as “a buffoon” and became visibly angry when describing his tenuous relationship with his downstairs neighbour.
Waselenkoff also testified about Russian female curling teams — one senior team and one junior team — that would stay with him in his condo for extended periods while they trained in Kamloops.
During his testimony, Waselenkoff referred to the curlers as “the girls.”
He said the Russians had the run of his home — including full access to his computer.
“It was like home to them,” he said.
“Some of them even said, ‘We spend more time here than we do with our parents.’”
Waselenkoff testified he “never” used the CD drive on his computer. However, a police investigator previously testified she found an image of Waselenkoff among other photos on a SmartBuy disc found in his home.
Another investigator said the name of a file on one of the child-pornography discs was similar to the name of a file that had recently been played on Waselenkoff’s computer.
“I have no explanation,” Waselenkoff said.
“If somebody had access to my computer, how many discs could they write? I don’t know. I have no idea.
“If there was somebody there who was interested in this kind of stuff, they could have stored them there for some other time.
“There were times when people I didn’t know [Russian curlers and coaches] were in my home for extended periods and I was out of town. What were they doing there? I don’t even know.”
Waselenkoff was fidgety throughout his testimony, often tapping the witness box and licking his teeth between swigs of water from a plastic bottle.
The trial is expected to end with closing arguments this week.
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