A Timmins man, and youth from Iroquois Falls and Cochrane are among those charged in online child exploitation investigations.
Police say the charges laid across Ontario in November are a snapshot of the work being done by internet child exploitation investigators part of the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet.
Jean-Paul Gelineau, 31, of Timmins has been charged with possession of child pornography, accessing child pornography and breach of probation.
A young person from Iroquois Falls is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and making available child pornography.
A young person in Cochrane is charged with luring a person under 16, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, making sexually explicit material available to child, fail to comply with probation order, and sexual assault.
“Perpetrators of online sexual exploitation often minimize their actions by saying they were ‘just looking.’ Let me be clear: Anyone who possesses, distributes, accesses or otherwise supports the supply and demand chain for child sexual abuse images are complicit in the sexual exploitation of children,” said Staff Sgt. Sharon Hanlon, co-ordinator of the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet, in a news release.
The charges were announced yesterday in Vaughan, Ont. Across the province, investigations last month resulted in 551 charges against 122 people, including 11 youth, who can’t be named due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Police say the investigations also identified 55 victims, who were referred to community-based resources for help. Police also seized 17 firearms, including three loaded handguns.
Since the provincial strategy started in August 2006, there have been 50,401 investigations, and 20,901 charges against 5,686 people. It has also identified 2,009 child victims in Ontario and beyond.
