The parents of two St. Albert children have been charged after alleged incidents of sexual abuse.
The parents were charged on Tuesday. The Edmonton-based Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit alleges the father had committed sexual offences against his two school-age children and the mother was aware of the abuse but didn’t contact police.
“It’s a very sad case. These two wonderful children who had their innocence stripped away for some sick sexual depravity by the people that they are closest to and that they should be trusting,” ICE Staff Sgt. Stephen Camp said.
“These children will have to live with that trauma for the rest of their lives.”
The 35-year-old father was charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference, two counts of invitation of sexual touching, making child pornography available and possession of child pornography.
The 32-year-old mother was charged with causing a youth to need intervention.
Police aren’t releasing the names of the parents in order to the protect the identity of the children.
ICE is working with the Zebra Child Protection Centre and Alberta’s Child and Family Services to provide support for the children.
“We’re going to provide a support and safety plan for them that’s tailored for their needs and is in the best interest of the child,” Kristin Simpson, Zebra director of child support services, said.
“We are very grateful to be working with the Zebra Child Protection Centre to provide the necessary support and the necessary assistance in their long recovery process to manage this type of trauma for probably the rest of their lives,” Camp said.
The investigation started in March 2017 after police were told by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a person uploading child pornography on social media.
“We have a lot of partners in the social media application industry. They have their own units to peruse their sites and they will find child pornography being uploaded, and they will report to the NCECC which will report to the appropriate jurisdiction,” Camp said.
ICE said it identified the suspect and a search warrant was conducted at a St. Albert home, where computer and electronic devices were seized.
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