Wed Jan 31, 2:48 AM
A St. John's man who took pornographic pictures of teenage girls at the downtown pizzeria he managed will not have to spend any more time in jail.
Mehnad Shablak, who had been in custody since he was arrested last February, was sentenced Tuesday to time served.
On Monday, Shablak, 31, pleaded guilty to eight counts involving making and owning child pornography.
Police had seized scores of computer disks and CDs containing photos he shot at Big Bite Pizza, a Water Street eatery he managed until his arrest last year.
In an agreed statement of facts, Shablak admitted to paying six girls - who were all between 13 and 16 at the time - with money or drugs. On one occasion, he gave a girl some pizza and soda.
The counts included six charges of making child pornography, and two counts of owning it.
Newfoundland Supreme Court Justice Seamus O'Regan ruled that the 11 months that Shablak has served in custody while awaiting trial - which conventionally counts as double time for sentencing purposes - was sufficient.
However, O'Regan also ordered Shablak not to have any contact with any of the girls involved in the pictures, which were taken in 2005 and early 2006.
O'Regan also ordered all of the images that were confiscated last year by police to be destroyed.
Shortly before Shablak's arrest, Richard Deering, at the time the chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, said there was a major sex ring operating in the St. John's area, with multiple suspects and operations that extended outside the province.
Defence lawyer Jeff Brace said those remarks did not help his client after his arrest.
"The spin, for lack of a better term, that had been placed on them by the chief at the time certainly aggravated the circumstances," Brace told CBC News.
"To be candid with you, Mehnad suffered quite severely at the penitentiary in his early days."
Brace pointed out that none of the evidence brought forward against Shablak suggested there was a large child exploitation ring operating in St. John's.
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