An Ottawa man has been sentenced to nearly five and a half years in jail for making and distributing child pornography, which RCMP investigators said was done in conjunction with an international ring of sex offenders.
The RCMP said in a release on Monday that they executed search warrants at “multiple locations” on June 30, 2020, with help from the Ottawa Police Service’s child exploitation unit.
Police said they arrested 68-year-old Tristen Alexandre Perrier at that time.
He later pleaded guilty and was convicted on one count each of making, possessing and distributing child pornography, RCMP said.
The Mounties say his offences include one of the largest seizures of child sexual exploitation material ever in Canada, containing more than one million such files.
On June 10, 2021, he was sentenced in the Ontario Court of Justice to 5.5 years in jail minus 11 days served, according to the release.
“These charges are a result of a joint international investigation into a group of transnational child sex offenders that revealed the involvement of a Canadian man,” the RCMP said in a statement, noting Perrier had been under investigation since January 2020.
RCMP said they do not have evidence to suggest Perrier committed sexual offences against Canadian children. Police said some of his activities occurred while travelling abroad and involved crimes carried out on the dark web.