Child porn charge against P.E.I. man will be heard in Supreme Court
Dylan Kurt Macdonald’s lawyer has elected Supreme Court on 1 of 4 charges he faces
The case against a Charlottetown man charged with sexual interference and making and possessing child pornography is on its way to P.E.I.'s Supreme Court.
Dylan Kurt Macdonald, 30, was charged by the RCMP in February after an investigation and search by the force's Internet Child Exploitation Unit.
He is facing a total of four charges, which at this point are being prosecuted in the jurisdiction where the offences allegedly took place: Queens, Kings and Prince counties.
No other information about the charges has come out in court, but the Crown's office says at least some of the alleged incidents are of a historic nature.
Sexual interference is a charge laid when police believe an adult has had sexual contact, including touching, with a person under the age of 16. Consent is not allowed as a defence when people that young are involved.
Child pornography is the term used to describe abusive or exploitative images of children.
Macdonald's lawyer, Isaac Quinn, appeared for him by telephone in Charlottetown provincial court Thursday to answer to the charge of possession of child pornography filed in Queens County.
He elected for the case to be heard in Supreme Court by judge alone, and waived a preliminary hearing on that charge. That means it will go straight to the Supreme Court without an early test of the evidence gathered against Macdonald.
Macdonald has also already made an appearance in Georgetown for the charge filed in Kings County, and he will appear in Summerside on the two Prince County charges next week.
While his lawyer says he cannot comment on matters before the court, in an email to CBC News, Quinn said the defence intended to make the same election for the other charges: to be tried by judge alone in Supreme Court.
Macdonald will make his first appearance in the higher court in Charlottetown on April 8.
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