ShareThisBy OLIVER MOORE and OMAR EL AKKAD
Monday, November 20, 2006
He is a father of two, a small-town photographer with a home studio who occasionally made calendars to sell at the local mall. He was also, police allege, offering more disturbing material on-line.
An investigator said the man sent him real-time video of the sexual abuse of a preschooler Sunday. According to police, the undercover officer, who had been posing as a pedophile since January, continued to chat on-line with the man while setting in motion a trio of police forces that quickly tracked him down.
Less than 90 minutes later, police turned up at a townhouse in a small community near London, Ontario. It was apparently the man's first clue he had been corresponding with an undercover officer.
"When the police came to his door, that's when he realized that the police were involved," said Detective Constable Paul Krawczyk, an officer with Toronto's child exploitation unit.
Although police would not give any details about the suspect, The Globe and Mail has learned that he is 34, married and the father of two daughters. People who lived near the family described them as friendly people who had moved into the neighbourhood, which lies at the edge of the town, in search of a bigger house.
Police said the man was found with the help of his Internet service provider, which was able to identify him through the electronic record he had left during his on-line behaviour. "I do want to say right now that in no way did the undercover officer participate in this," Krawczyk said. "This was shown to the undercover officer, and immediately we went out to try to locate her. It was nothing that we participated willingly in."
The portrayal of domestic suburban life jars with the images police said were being produced at the house. Krawczyk, who saw them, said the depictions of abuse of the girl were sickening even to veteran officers.
"You think you see everything, or you think you can deal with everything, but at that moment, what I recall is my heart racing out of control, sweating, and feeling like I was going to throw up, to be honest," he told a news conference in Toronto.
"Just knowing that _ we see these images. Unfortunately we see a lot of them, many times a day even. But to see this child, you know, and look in that child's eyes and realize that that child was live somewhere and that we had the possibility to save her right _ save the child right then, it's difficult to describe. It was a bit odd, and I'm getting the same feeling right now talking about it."
Officers from the local police department were able to make a speedy arrest.
They found the girl at the house and said she is now safe with family members.
Krawczyk _ who warned pedophiles that police are watching and that they will be caught _ said the incident shows how emboldened child abusers are by the anonymity provided by the Internet.
"They're getting more daring because the Internet allows them to talk about their conquests and allows them to discuss with like-minded people," he said.
