A repeat sex offender awaits his sentence after he was busted for exploiting children by possessing and distributing child pornography. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

disturbing material

Repeat Nanaimo sex offender pleads guilty to more child porn charges

Feb 13, 2025 | 6:54 AM

NANAIMO — A jail sentence four years ago evidently didn’t deter a Nanaimo man from further exploiting vulnerable children.

Keith Minard Gates, 49, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Feb 12 in Nanaimo to a pair of charges: Importing/distributing child pornography and possessing child pornography.

His most recent offending involved possessing or distributing nearly 660 illegal images using various Nanaimo-based devices between Aug. 2021 and Feb. 2023.

Crown prosecutor Suzanne Cassell outlined a statement of facts of Gates’ offending in Nanaimo provincial court, stating Gates came to the attention of authorities in November of 2022.

Facebook’s parent company Meta flagged an image of a female toddler being sexually abused by a man which Gates sent via Facebook Messenger to another user of the social media platform.

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Gates was arrested on Feb. 23, 2023, as he was leaving the Nanaimo Community Corrections office on Church St.

A search warrant of his home uncovered multiple devices containing 551 images of child porn, including girls estimated as young as four-years-old sexually abused by men.

In addition to the Nanaimo RCMP raid, Google intercepted 104 child porn images Gates had uploaded in the days and weeks prior to his arrest.

United States-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted in the investigation.

Judge Brian Harvey ordered a pre-sentence, psychiatric risk assessment and Gladue reports for Gates.

He will be sentenced at a later date.

Gates was sentenced to 10 months in jail on March 22, 2021, 18 months’ probation and was assigned to the National Sex Offender Registry for 20 years after he pleaded guilty to a singular charge of possession of child pornography.

A breach of probation charge applied against Gates is expected to be dropped by Crown counsel in exchange for the guilty pleas.

Meanwhile, another man was jailed after pleading guilty to a possession of child pornography charge.

Court records showed 59-year-old Brent Lee Briscoe was jailed for four months and handed two years probation on Wednesday in provincial court in relation to a January 2022 offence in Nanaimo.

Keith Minard Gates sprints from the Nanaimo courthouse after pleading guilty to child pornography charges on Wednesday, Feb 12. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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