Halifax pediatrician gets 11 months behind bars for possessing child porn

A Halifax pediatrician has been sentenced to 11 months in prison for possessing child pornography.

Dr. William Richard Vitale, 74, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing child pornography last September.

He was sentenced to 5 months on each count in Halifax provincial court on Wednesday.

The Crown has said Vitale accessed the files on his home computer between January 2013 and December 2014.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia immediately suspended Vitale after charges were laid in 2016.

The college said there was no one available for comment Friday.

Vitale, who graduated from McGill University's faculty of medicine in 1976, was reprimanded twice by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia.

He was disciplined in 2015 for writing prescriptions for a member of his own family and also in 2013 for improperly administering vaccinations.

The college found he was improperly mixing incompatible vaccines in a single syringe. He was ordered to undergo specialized ethics training in Toronto and submit to an audit of his practice.

Vitale's sentence will be followed by two years probation, andincludes a DNA order and forfeiture of "computer-related devices," the public prosecution said.