Five locals charged in provincial child porn investigation

Toddlers often victims of online sexual abuse targeting children

The child exploitation material that police find online often involves children as young as toddlers, Waterloo Regional Police said Wednesday.

Police held a news conference Wednesday afternoon to detail their role in a provincewide, month-long effort to focus on arresting criminals in child pornography investigations.

The project, dubbed Project Maverick, is part of a provincial strategy to protect children from online sexual abuse that includes two ministries and 27 police agencies, from Thunder Bay to Niagara.

Waterloo Regional Police laid 20 charges related to child exploitation, executed seven search warrants and arrested four men and one woman.

It was unusual for local police to see a woman involved in an online child exploitation investigation, said Sgt. Brian Duyn of the cybercrime branch.

A lot of the material police encounter in these investigations involve photos and videos produced earlier, before it’s reshared online.

“If you can imagine the worst moment of your life has been recorded on video, and now it’s being shared around the world multiple times, by thousands of people,” said Duyn, who also manages the internet child exploitation team.

The material usually involves very young children. “We’re talking toddlers,” he said.

One local case in the October effort led to the arrest of a man in the United Kingdom.

Police confiscated all devices in a 39-year-old Cambridge woman’s house, which led to the arrest of a 33-year-old man from Bedfordshire, U.K., and another local Cambridge man.

Some charges against the man in England were “hands-on offences against children,” said Duyn.

The man is charged with sexual activity with a female child family member under 13, sexual activity with a male child family member

under 13, two counts of taking indecent photographs, two counts of distributing indecent images, intentionally encourage/assist in commission of an offence and publish obscene article.

The man from Cambridge is a repeat offender, said Duyn. In 2011, he was convicted of sexual interference in connection to the sexual assault of a five-yearold, and child pornography offences.

In this case, four children were safeguarded, meaning someone was removed from the child’s home and arrested for online child exploitation crimes. The arrested person usually cannot return home once released, as they are barred from contact with minors. Safeguarded children are not always direct victims of a crime.

But Duyn said the four children safeguarded in this case — two in Cambridge and two in the United Kingdom — were all victims of sexual assault. All four are under 13 years old.

At least three other children were living with the arrested people.

Although Project Maverick has wrapped up, local investigations are still ongoing and can be lengthy.

After devices are seized, forensic analysts go through every image and video and categorize the severity of the material.

“That can take a long time. Sometimes there’s thousands, tens of thousands, that need to be examined and categorized,” he said.

Many investigations start when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police forward a tip to local police about a person sharing child sexual abuse material on social media.

Sextortion, where children are tricked into sharing intimate images of themselves and extorted for money, is a growing problem in the region, said Duyn, jumping from about 10 reported incidents in 2010 to around 200 this year.

Waterloo Regional Police are not the only service to take steps in this year’s provincial strategy to protect children from online sexual abuse.

The 27 participating police services identified 61 victims, who were referred to community agencies or groups for help. Another 60 children were safeguarded. Across the program and for the month of October, police conducted a total of 255 investigations, laid 428 charges against 107 people, and seized 1,032 devices.

Another 175 investigations are ongoing.

Since the strategy was launched in 2006, participating police services have completed 65,564 investigations and laid 24,608 charges.

These charges were laid against 6,540 people, with 3,470 victims identified.

The Boost Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, the Children’s Aid Society and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection gave support and education to the victims.

Local arrests

A 39-year-old woman from Cambridge faces a number of charges, including two counts of possession of child pornography, make available child pornography, two counts of agreement or arrangement — sexual offence against child and making child pornography.

A 39-year-old man from Cambridge is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography.

A 38-year-old man from Cambridge faces charges of possession of child pornography, making child pornography, make available child pornography and two counts of agreement or arrangement — sexual offence against child.

A 38-year-old man from Kitchener faces two counts possession of child pornography and make available child pornography.

A 25-year-old man from Cambridge faces two counts of possession of child pornography.

All those charged have been released on bail with upcoming court dates in December and January.