Crown recommends two-year prison sentence for Moorhouse for sex offences

The Crown is seeking a two-year prison sentence for Peter Alan Moorhouse, an Enfield man who pleaded guilty in 2022 to a pair of charges involving the sexual exploitation of children.

Moorhouse, 50, was fired as CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Atlantic Canada after he and another Enfield resident were charged by the RCMP’s provincial internet child exploitation unit in February 2021.

Moorhouse pleaded guilty in Shubenacadie provincial court in July 2022 to charges of making arrangements with the other man, Carlos Ayapal Gonzalez Moraga, to commit a sexual offence against a child and making child pornography.

The sentencing was postponed several times while lawyers awaited a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada in a Quebec luring case involving the constitutionality of mandatory minimum punishments.

Each of Moorhouse’s offences carries a mandatory minimum sentence of a year in jail, but defence lawyer Ian Hutchison said the combined penalty would violate his client’s right under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms not to be subjected to cruel or unusual punishment.

The ruling from the top court came down after Moorhouse’s sentencing hearing got underway last September with the tendering of an agreed statement of facts and evidence from a forensic psychologist retained by the defence.

Judge Marc Chisholm then received written submissions from lawyers. Chisholm was expected to sentence Moorhouse on Thursday but adjourned the hearing until Feb. 22 after asking counsel to address a couple of issues regarding the agreed facts and the psychologist’s opinion.

Agreed facts

According to the facts, East Hants RCMP responded to a complaint in late January 2021 from a woman who discovered inappropriate messages on Moraga’s cellphone regarding her 14-year-old daughter.

Screenshots of the messages between Moraga, who used the name Charlo None, and an individual who went by Tim Daniels were provided to police.

In the messages, the pair discussed the 14-year-old and a 12-year-old girl. Moraga told Daniels that he had touched the 14-year-old’s chest and buttocks, and Daniels offered the 12-year-old to Moraga.

The 12-year-old was later determined to be fictitious.

On Feb. 4, 2021, members of the internet child exploitation unit arrested Moraga, searched his residence and seized electronic devices. RCMP then obtained a warrant to examine Moraga’s email account and were able to identify Moorhouse as the other man.

Further review of the messages revealed more conversations from January 2021 in which the men talked about having sex with a 14-year-old girl and how Moorhouse would like to watch Moraga have sex with the younger girl.

On Feb. 7, 2021, RCMP attended Moorhouse’s residence with a search warrant and arrested him. RCMP found deleted images and photos on his work computer that met the definition of child pornography.

An RCMP report containing 248 emails between Moorhouse and Moraga was filed with the court in September but sealed.

Psychological assessment

Forensic psychologist Pamela Yates testified in September about a risk and sexual behaviour assessment she completed on Moorhouse in May 2022. Yates told the court Moorhouse’s risk to reoffend generally is low and his risk to reoffend sexually is below average.

She said Moorhouse does not appear to have a sexual interest in children but committed the offences to try to resolve “emotional turmoil and confusion” related to sexual abuse he suffered as a child. 

“He appears to have spent several decades attempting to do so via various sexual behaviours, with little effect except to seek out increasingly more intense experiences over time,” Yates wrote in her report.

In the Quebec case, the top court found that the mandatory minimum penalties for child luring were unconstitutional based on a reasonable hypothetical, but it still imposed a one-year jail sentence on the offender.

In her brief to the court for Moorhouse’s sentencing, Crown attorney Terri Lipton urged Chisholm not to interfere with the mandatory minimum punishments.

“After assessing factors such as the gravity of the facts in this case, the personal circumstances of Mr. Moorhouse, the impact on victims, and parity (especially as it relates to the co-accused, Carlos Moraga), it is evident that the range of sentencing for these offences would, at the very least, include one year of imprisonment consecutive on each charge,” the prosecutor wrote. “Such a sentence would certainly not be grossly disproportionate.

“This Court plays a key role in sending a message to the greater community that individuals who choose to engage in the conduct of making child pornography and making arrangements to commit a sexual offence against a child will receive sentences that adequately reflect the principles of deterrence, denunciation and the far-reaching harm caused by their conduct.”

‘Role-playing’

Hutchison, in his submissions, said Moorhouse was “engaged in role-playing” when he committed the offences.

“He referred to a fictional child and believed the other party was also referring to a fictional child,” the defence lawyer wrote. “Mr. Moorhouse believed the (conversations) to be fantasy as opposed to an actual plan to be put into action.”

Hutchison said Moorhouse has experienced “significant collateral consequences,” including the loss of a prestigious job. He said media coverage of the case has caused his client public humiliation and embarrassment.

The mandatory minimum penalties would be grossly disproportionate in Moorhouse’s circumstances and should not be applied, Hutchison argued. He said the fit and proper sentence would be three years’ probation with strict conditions and 200 hours of community service.

Moorhouse remains free on a $10,000 bail order with conditions prohibiting internet use and contact with children. Moraga, 38, pleaded guilty last year to charges of sexual interference and making child pornography and received a 27-month prison sentence.