A U.S. resident who'd been working in Victoria as a registered nurse has pleaded guilty in one of the most extensive collections of child pornography the investigating officer has ever seen.
In June 2014, a Victoria police ICE officer began investigating a man named David Robert for offences related to child pornography. But the officer later learned the name was fake — his real name was David Stallcup, who'd been evading police for 14 years on outstanding charges from the United States and creating different identities along the way.
During the investigation, police found that within a 16-day period, more than 350 files were shared, of which all were believed to contain child pornography. In March 2015, Victoria police searched the man's home in the 700 block of Fisgard Street and seized more than 20 pieces of evidence that included 775 videos (representing more than 139 hours) and more than 27,000 images of child pornography.
A month later, police issued an arrest warrant for Stallcup, and managed to track him down in an Oregon jail. At that time, police also learned he had been using the false name during his stay in Canada.
The 43-year-old was traced from Colorado to Alaska, Montana, the Northwest Territories, then to Victoria, assuming various identities throughout a 20-year period.
Due to the seriousness of the crime, Victoria police had Stallcup extradited back to Canada in November. Last week, he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and remains in custody.
Victoria police spokesperson Const. Matt Rutherford said the volume of child pornography that was found is disturbing.
“When it's described by an investigator who's been doing these types of investigations for several years that it's the most extensive he's ever seen, it's disgusting,” said Rutherford.
In January 2016, the Oregoneon newspaper reported on a sentencing hearing for Stallcup, who was going by the name of David Robert Rhineheart. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to using someone else's name to apply for a passport in an effort to avoid detection for burglary and aggravated car theft charges he faced in Colorado two years prior.
But Stallcup fled before he was sentenced in federal court and was on the lam for more than a decade before he wound up in an Oregon jail.
According to the judge, back in Canada Stallcup stayed at a nearby coffee shop as Victoria police searched his home that day in March 2015. He then fled to his father's residence in California where he was arrested about a month later on a 15-year-old federal warrant. Stallcup was sentenced to a year and five months in custody.
His next court date in Victoria is Feb. 9.
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