Belleville police have arrested a 24-year-old man in a child-luring investigation involving the use of TikTok.
Police say they received a call from a mother of an 11-year-old girl after discovering conversations that police say appeared to be “grooming in nature” on TikTok as well as through text messages between her daughter and a man who appeared to be 24 years old.
Members of the Belleville Police Service’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit began an investigation, and as a result arrested 24-year-old Travis Layzell of Bancroft without incident.
Layzell was charged with adult luring of a person under 16 years of age by telecommunications and held for a bail hearing on December 12.
Police believe the suspect had attempted to contact other young females. They said Layzell’s TikTok display name was “clean 5.3” with the associated username of “that_stock_5.3_guy.”
Anyone who has information that may assist investigators regarding this matter or the identity of other victims is asked to contact D/Cst. Montgomery at lmontgomery@bellevilleps.ca or 613-966-0882 x 4186.
