A 56-year-old man is facing charges related to child pornography following an investigation by the BC Integrated Child Exploitation (BC ICE) unit.
In March, Ronald Gardner was arrested and charged with making child pornography or agreement to commit a sexual offence against a child and failing to comply with his prohibition order stemming from former child pornography-related charges.
The BC ICE investigation started in February 2016 when an officer, posing as a single mother of two children, went online in a chat room that was known for being used by people to discuss their sexual interests in children. The officer started talking to one user of the chat room, which Mounties say quickly turned sexual in nature with the suspect allegedly describing various sexual acts he wished to have with the investigator’s fictitious children.
On March 10, the suspect allegedly set up a time to meet with the ‘mother’ at a Burnaby restaurant and engage in sexual acts with her fictitious young daughter.
Gardner was released on bail on March 18 with several conditions that include: restricting his access to children, computer devices and the internet.
Less than a month later, Gardner was arrested by Abbotsford police for being in breach of his conditions. He remains in custody and the BC ICE unit is continuing their investigation.
The BC RCMP is asking anyone who is aware of any incidents of online child exploitation to report it immediately to local police or the national tipline.
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