Last week I wrote about the 2014 homicide case against Aaron Douglas, the charges for which were quietly dropped in 2019 after a jury couldn’t come to a decision and a retrial was cancelled.
My main point in that column was that it’s not always easy for journalists, or anyone, to keep track of the comings and goings in our criminal justice system.
We do our best. But here is another way I messed up, so to speak.
A year-and-a-half ago I wrote the final story on Main Street Church’s executive pastor Johannes (John) Vermeer who was sentenced to 14 months jail followed by 18 months probation for accessing and possessing child pornography on at least one church computer.
“Main Street Church’s former executive pastor is off to jail after being sentenced for accessing and possessing child pornography,” was the lede (first sentence) of that Progress story.
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READ MORE: Chilliwack church pastor sentenced to 14 months jail in child porn case
Vermeer was sentenced on Oct. 13, 2021, which means his full jail sentence would have been served by Dec. 13, 2022. Statutory release, two thirds of a sentence, would have seen Vermeer serving the rest of his jail term in the community after nine months and 10 days, so he would have actually been out close to July 23, 2022.
So I wasn’t surprised at all to hear from a Main Street Church attendee who knew Vermeer that he was seen out in the community.
“He would have served his sentence by now,” I explained.
But I was wrong. I was also (sort of) wrong with that 2021 news story after he was sentenced by stating the pastor was “off to jail.”
He certainly would have been taken to jail after being sentenced, but what I didn’t know, and shouldn’t have surprised me, is he planned to appeal. He was then released on bail pending the appeal hearing, which is standard practice.
So if you’ve seen the 64-year-old Vermeer out and about, no, he did not admit his guilt despite being found guilty in provincial court by Judge Andrea Ormiston, nor did he serve his sentence.
Today (April 3) at 10 a.m. at the B.C. Court of Appeal (BCCA) in Vancouver, Vermeer’s appeal will be heard.
Before hearing from his lawyers, it’s impossible to know exactly what grounds Vermeer plans to argue to claim he was wrongly convicted. The BCCA hearing list states only: “The appellant appeals from conviction on child pornography offences on the ground that digital evidence was improperly adduced.”
“Adduced”? Not a common English word, but in part it means the process of putting forth evidence to the court for consideration. What exactly Vermeer’s lawyers will argue wasn’t put forth properly is yet to be seen.
“Mr. Vermeer possessed some of the most offensive, harmful and depraved forms of abuse on children,” Judge Ormistion said after conviction. She added that the fact that the victims were unknown to Vermeer, does not lessen that suffering.
Crown counsel Teresa Mitchell-Banks argued that there is no practical difference between offenders like Vermeer who access and view child pornography and the pedophiles and abusers who create the illegal images and videos.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that people who watch online child pornography are online pedophiles,” Mitchell-Banks said. “He is an online predator.”
An aggravating factor according to Judge Ormiston was that Vermeer appeared to have zero insight into his criminal behaviour or the reasons for it. The judge pointed to the letters of support from friends who were in complete denial saying that they “cannot accept that these offences occurred.”
But they did. Vermeer was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt and the man clearly has an “entrenched interest in child pornography” with files and folders on his computer with names consistent with child pornography dating back to 2006.
The former church pastor said nothing after the sentencing, now we know why.
If John Vermeer’s appeal is dismissed based on a rejection of whatever legal technicality his lawyer puts forth and the conviction stands, maybe the good Christian man will step forward and apologize and look to gain insight into his pedophilia and his destructive criminal behaviour.
Don’t hold your breath.
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