Alberta pastor charged with child luring after discovery of ‘sexually explicit’ text messages

A 59-year-old Alberta pastor has been charged with child luring in connection with an incident that dates back to last spring.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s Internet Child Exploitation team arrested Glenn Harvey Boyde, a pastor with the Meewasin Free Methodist Church in Duffield, Alta., on Monday.

Staff Sgt. Paul Czerwonka with ALERT said the arrest comes after the parents of a 15-year-old girl discovered “sexually explicit” text messages on her cellphone in May 2015.

The text messages were believed to be from a man who was known to the family through the church and youth social gatherings that the teen participated in, according to ALERT.

After ICE reviewed the text messages, investigators named Boyde as a suspect. Boyde was employed as a pastor at the Meewasin Free Methodist Church at the time but was removed from his position shortly after the complaint came forward.

Boyde was released from custody on a number of conditions and is scheduled to appear in court in Stony Plain on March 30.

Duffield is located about 65 kilometres west of Edmonton.

ICE is a team that consists of Edmonton Police Service and RCMP members. ICE investigates offences involving child pornography, any computer-related child sexual abuse, child luring over the Internet, voyeurism involving victims under the age of 18 and child sex trade/tourism.