(Warning: Some of the details in this story are disturbing.)
A former senior Nalcor employee has pleaded guilty to online sex charges involving children.
Fifty-three-year-old Deric Cameron was convicted in Supreme Court this morning of making and distributing child pornography, and luring a child.
Cameron was a senior scientist with OilCo, formerly Nalcor, when he committed the acts from his home three years ago this week.
He used the Twitter account groovyguy100, sending and receiving extremely sexually graphic messages and photos of children, as young as one year old, engaged in sex acts with adults.
Cameron was also back and forth with an unidentified 12-year-old girl in the U.K., encouraging masturbation with a hair brush, and sending photos of his own ejaculate on pictures of young girls.
Deric Cameron (VOCM News)
Cameron pleaded guilty and had no criminal record until now, chalking up his actions to being lonely and lost with mental health issues in the wake of the COVID pandemic, telling the court “my heart is full of regret, shame and sorrow.”
He was fired from his job and has since separated from his wife, with whom they have two adult children.
His lawyer proposed a sentence of 26 months, noting the offences were committed over just two days, a “very small chapter of his life.” He’s been in therapy since being charged, also citing unspecified childhood trauma himself.
The Crown, however, is seeking three-and-a-half years in prison, saying the disturbing nature of the crimes offset the short time-frame.
Cameron was handcuffed and taken into custody for the first time today, pending sentencing by Justice Valerie Marshall on May 23rd.
