A man accused of possessing child pornography tried to get off the hook with a few legal technicalities Monday.

Robert Douglas Gibb was in court trying to convince a territorial judge that his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated.

Gibb's defence lawyer, Keith Parkkari, said his client was not being tried within a reasonable time frame and that Whitehorse RCMP had not properly informed Gibb of his right to a lawyer.

The man has been awaiting his trial since November 2003.

Gibb was arrested after he was called to the police detachment to talk about pornographic material that his son had accidentally stumbled across.

Among some of those images were nude pictures of prepubescent girls.

RCMP Const. Bradley Wirachowsky had planned to talk to Gibb about the photos, thinking the man would deny owning the property. In that case, court heard, Wirachowsky would have warned Gibb about the serious criminal nature of owning such material.

But, much to Wirachowsky's surprise, Gibb, a day care worker, confessed to owning all the photos.

'He put his head down and said they were his,' the officer testified.

Wirachowsky stopped him, letting Gibb know he didn't have to say anything to him until a lawyer was present.

'He appeared to understand and said nothing.'

The officer then stepped out of the room and started the video camera and tape recorder.

'As I recall, he appeared nervous,' said Wirachowsky. 'I reiterated that Mr. Gibb could call a lawyer.'

He said Gibb did nothing to indicate he wanted to leave.

The two discussed how Gibb managed to obtain such material.

Gibb never declined to answer any questions, except when he refused to tell the officer his place of employment the Akasha Day Care.

Wirachowsky left the room again to ask his sergeant if there was enough evidence to make an arrest.

Upon that discussion, he decided he would arrest Gibb, and tried to make the man sign a form allowing police to search his property for evidence.

Gibb became distraught, especially after Wirachowsky said he needed to be fingerprinted.

The accused then leaned against the wall and started twitching.

'To me, the seizure didn't appear to be real,' Wirachowsky told court. 'But I'm not a medical expert.'

He called an ambulance to deal with the situation.

When Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived, Gibb woke up and told the officer that everything he said had been a lie.

The man refused to be treated by the ambulance attendants.

Wirachowsky then officially arrested Gibb and read him his rights. He told the man he had a right to a lawyer.

'It was after his seizure he became confused,' said Wirachowsky.

Gibb said he didn't understand what the officer was saying nor what possession of 'child pornography' meant.

He then had another seizure, falling out of his chair.

Gibb was taken to Whitehorse Genera Hospital.

Leaving the accused in a room alone, a doctor called Wirachowsky into the hallway to ask the officer's opinion as to whether the seizures were real.

When the pair re-entered the examination room, Gibb had a Swiss army knife to his wrist.

Gibb told Wirachowsky if the officer made any mistakes, he (Wirachowsky) would pay for it forever.

The officer disarmed Gibb, handcuffing him and taking him back to the police station.

The officer testified that at one point in the hospital, it looked like Gibb was going to take off running. However, he then confessed to Wirachowsky that he didn't think he would get very far if he tried.

Gibb had brought a computer hard drive in for his meeting with Wirachowsky to prove that he had no more photos like the ones his son had found.

The officer locked the device in a police locker after Gibb was put in police cells.

Wirachowsky later obtained a search warrant for the man's apartment.

A second hard drive was seized and sent to the RCMP Pacific Technological Crime Unit.

Wirachowsky was told it would take four months for the laboratory to process the hard drive.

In March 2004, the officer was contacted by the lab and told there was child pornography present.

But the officer didn't received a full-report from the lab until last Aug. 9, even though he had been asking for updates on the situation since the previous May.

Wirachowsky's requests for updates were ignored, court heard. So, last July, with Gibb's pending court appearance, Wirachowsky asked his superior, Sgt. Frank Campbell who heads up the Yukon's major crimes unit to make a call on his behalf.

It wasn't until Aug. 12 that the two lawyers involvedCrown prosecutor David McWhinnie and Parkkarihad their first chance to review the report, which came in the form of three CD-ROMs.

Parkkari could not get a copy of the CD-ROMs without a court order, as it is illegal for the RCMP to make copies of pornographic evidence. They could be accused of distributing child porn themselves because of the way the Criminal Code is written.

It would be last Sept. 10 when Parkkari would get that court order, but he didn't receive his copies until Dec. 23.

Parkkari had to ask that the original trial scheduled for last Sept. 20 be adjourned.

It's the delay in getting the CD-ROM reports that hindered Gibb's right to a quick trial, said Parkkari.

Gibb will have waited more than 15 months by the time his trial gets underway this March.

McWhinnie said the lab couldn't have produced a report any sooner because it was backlogged with other cases that took precedence over the Yukon one.

He said local RCMP had done everything in their power to speed the process along by inquiring into the report's progress.

'The nature of the case required more time, as there was a need for specified analysis,' McWhinnie said.

Judge John Faulkner agreed with McWhinnie and ruled in the Crown's favour.

'(The delays) did not reach the point of being unreasonable,' said Faulkner. 'The lab does not work on a single file at a time, so delays are not out of the ordinary.'

Parkkari also told the judge that Gibb had not been made clearly aware that he could call a lawyer.

He pointed out that Gibb was never told there was an on-call duty counsel available to give legal advice to those in his position.

Parkkari also said it was likely Gibb's impression that he wasn't free to go at anytime before the arrest, even though he was.

The defence lawyer said since Gibb didn't understand his right to a lawyer, the confession should be excluded as evidence before the court.

Since the confession was used to obtain the search warrant, that would mean it too would be void, so the evidence processed from the lab wouldn't be usable by the court, the lawyer said.

The judge said he would need some time to think about Parkkari's arguments and will make his decision sometime before Gibb's March trial.

Wirachowsky said once the charges became public, many parents wanted their children to be interviewed by the police to find out if they had been abused.

Most of those children in question attended the Akasha Day Care, where Gibb had worked.

Day care staff told police they did not believe any of those children were assaulted.