Meron out after child porn conviction

Clay Meron has been granted day parole, six months after being sentenced to four years for possessing child pornography in Summerside.

Just last March, Meron was sentenced to four years in a federal penitentiary for what police described as the biggest child porn possession case ever uncovered in Atlantic Canada. It was his third conviction.

In those three cases, police have seized a total of 500,000 images of child pornography from Meron's computers. Two hundred thousand of those were found while Meron was on probation for an earlier child porn conviction.

Last week, the National Parole Board granted Meron day parole only six months into his sentence, but the board has imposed several conditions.

In documents obtained by the CBC, the parole board said Meron poses a high risk to re-offend and describes his behaviour as "troublesome." For those reasons, the board took the unusual step of banning Meron from having contact with anyone under the age of 18. That condition was imposed, the board said, because Meron clearly prefers viewing pornographic images of children between the ages of 12 and 18.

Meron is also not allowed to own, possess, use, maintain, access, or obtain a computer or access the internet, either for personal use or for work.

The documents also note that Meron has shown little remorse for his crimes, has refused treatment, and does not appreciate the seriousness of his convictions.

One of the reasons the board says it granted day parole was because Meron has never committed a violent crime or shown a propensity to be violent. The board also says there's no evidence Meron has attempted to have physical contact with children or that he ever will.

He will be eligible for full parole in March.