Okanagan man accused of child porn offenses under further investigation

A West Kelowna man charged with child pornography offenses is under further police scrutiny for possible additional charges of a similar nature.

In April, Tyler James Nowek, 29, was charged with luring a child and making child pornography.

His arrest came after an officer with the Integrated Child Exploitation Unit logged onto a chat site in March while pretending to be a 13 year old girl.

Police say the officer was soon approached by Nowek and their chats quickly became sexually explicit with Nowek allegedly suggesting meeting the girl for a date.

Nowek was charged after the Mounties executed a search warrant at his former place of business and seized company computer equipment.

At a recent administrative court appearance, Crown Counsel told the judge the RCMP was tipped off by American law enforcement authorities that Nowek had been allegedly using his Hotmail account to access, download and distribute child pornography.

The prosecutor says police are obtaining another search warrant to technically examine Nowek’s personal computer.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor was chided by the judge for taking too long to disclose the evidence from the ICE Unit investigation to Nowek’s lawyer, saying Nowek is “twisting in the wind not knowing the case against him”.

The Crown blamed the delay on workload issues, but the judge told him to make the evidence disclosure a priority, and warned the charges may be stayed if  Nowek can’t properly defend himself.

He returns to court later this month.