Greater Sudbury Police now have more resources to investigate those who produce and distribute child pornography on the Internet.
The police service will receive $527,440 from the province over the next two years as part of a $5.2 million province-wide strategy to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation on the Internet.
“Keeping our children safe from Internet predators is a key priority of the McGuinty government,” said Sudbury MPP and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Rick Bartolucci, who made the announcement July 16.
“Internet luring is a despicable crime that warrants our full attention.”
The local funding allows a three officer undercover team to continue to monitor websites, chat rooms and newsgroups to identify suspected child predators and victims, and prevent further victimization.”
The announcement came just a day after a 15-year-old Sudbury boy was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, making available child pornography and accessing child pornography.
The suspect appeared in court and was released Wednesday, said police.
The investigation into the suspect's activities was conducted by the Greater Sudbury Police' cyber crime unit, in conjunction with the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service.
Sgt. Tim Burtt, who heads up the cyber crime unit, said he appreciates the new funding.
“It sustains what we are doing now. In 2002, we did not have any support for this work. We investigated these cases by ourselves. We got training where we could. Now we have this unified approach to going out and doing this.”
Deputy police chief Al Lekun, said in the last year alone, the cyber crime unit investigated:
- 130 new cases
- charged 11 individuals
- laid 29 Criminal Code charges
- executed 16 search warrants
- identified three victims
“That work is facilitated through provincial funding.”
Lekun said there are more investigations due to more resources being available for the cyber unit.
The work is timely considering the kind of access youth have to the Internet, said Burtt.
“The Internet is their lives. That means they get exposed to a lot of material that nobody should be even seeing. So there is a chance they will be involved in it or be seeing it. Not every one will be involved in this. But the opportunity is there.”
He said an important message that parents need to hear is they need to know what their children are doing on the Internet.
“We can't let them go into a room to be on the Internet. We have to know where they are going on the Internet. Yesterday's case with the alleged 15 year old violator demonstrates what can happen when they are left alone.”
Seeing child pornography can be tough for the officers who are investigating it.
“We are dealing with pretty vile material. We are talking about people who exploit our children. These are not cute pictures. We are talking about prepubescent children in pretty graphic sexual acts. It will have an impact on anyone who sees it.”
The other two officers in the cyber crime unit are Const. Todd Bignucolo, a computer forensic examiner and Det. Const. Dan Zuliani, a victim identification officer.
“Eventually we may be able to have another officer trained to do this work.”
Partnering with other police forces to fight cyber crime is key, said Bartolucci.
“It (the provincial strategy) helps police investigators work with other agencies and jurisdictions to help apprehend offenders and assist victims.”
Since the provincial strategy was first implemented in 2006, nearly 4,800 investigations have been conducted and almost 2,000 charges have been laid against 634 people.
