OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique speaks at a May 8 press conference in Scarborough, Ont. to announce 348 charges have been laid in a province-wide investigation into the distribution of child pornography. OPP Detective Staff Sergeant Tim Brown and Canadian Centre for Child Protection associate executive director Signy Arnason, pictured on the right, also spoke to reporters. (OPP handout photo)
Sixty-four people have been arrested and 348 charges have been laid in a province-wide investigation into the distribution of child sexual abuse material, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has announced.
Known as Project Aquatic, the case involved 129 separate investigations from 27 police services across the province, the OPP said during a May 8 news conference in Scarborough. The investigation began Feb. 19 into the sexual exploitation of 34 child victims and ended Feb. 29 with the arrest of 64 people connected to the making, possession and distribution of “child sexual abuse material.”
Thirty-four child victims were identified as part of the investigation, OPP Detective Staff Sergeant Tim Brown told reporters, adding that another 30 children were “safeguarded” as part of the investigation. Det.-Sgt. Brown said the safeguarded children were removed from “a dangerous position” where they could be “offended against.”
There was a wide age span among both victims and offenders, Det.-Sgt. Brown said.
While he didn’t give specifics, he said victims could include “infants, and we do see infants that are abused and victimized for sure, right through up until early teens and teenage years.”
The alleged offenders ranged in age from teenagers to senior citizens, police said with the youngest being a 16-year-old from Windsor charged with possessing, accessing and making available child pornography. On the other end of the spectrum, an 89-year-old Toronto was charged with possession of child pornography.
Det.-Sgt. Brown said some of those charged as part of the investigation “had been previously released for offences” and were out on bail, but he did not provide any specifics beyond that.
Police said one individual set up a meeting with undercover investigators with the intention of meeting a child “for a sexual purpose.”
Another suspect was in possession of approximately 21 terabytes of data containing child sexual abuse material, the OPP said in a press release, adding that more than 600 digital devices were seized as part of the investigation.
As technology continues to evolve and improve, the number of child sexual exploitation cases increase, Det.-Sgt. Brown said
“The tools used by predators who wish to harm our children are more sophisticated and harder to trace, from advanced encryption to the dark web,” he said. “These factors add to the complexity of police investigations.”
AI-generated images add to that complexity, he said, because investigators now have to differentiate between “real and synthetic victims.”
More to come…