An 18-year-old man from Newell County, Alta., is facing several child pornography charges after an RCMP investigation.
Bassano RCMP said on March 8, they received a tip that a man was distributing pornographic images to an under-aged girl.
RCMP officers, along with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team Internet Child Exploitation (ICUE) unit executed a search warrant and found evidence that identified several victims, both male and female between the ages of 14 – 16, police said in a media release Friday.
The suspect is not being named in order to protect the identity and privacy of the victims.
The man is facing several charges including:
- eight counts of distributing child pornography
- eight counts of possessing child pornography
- two counts of distributing sexually explicit material to a person under 16 years
- one count of child luring
He’s set to appear in court on May 5.
Bassano RCMP said it has been running internet safety programs for schools in the area.
“In response to this occurrence, we have held another virtual session with our schools and will continue this in the future,” said Cpl. Sebastian Andrews. “We urge parents to monitor their children’s online activity and to access the resources at www.cybertip.ca for information and resources on how to help keep children safe online.”
Newell County is located in southeastern Alberta, between Calgary and Medicine Hat.