Belleville, Trent Hills residents among 107 people charged in province-wide child exploitation investigations

It’s a staggering number.

In the month of October alone, 428 charges were laid against 107 people across Ontario as part of the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.

Ontario Provincial Police Detective Inspector Jordan Whitesell says the Belleville Police Service is one of the policing partners involved in the strategy.

“The Provincial Strategy is a 27-agency collaborative partnership, including two ministries of the Ontario government, that works to combat child sexual abuse material online. Project Maverick was designed to highlight one month for the Provincial Strategy just to show the scope and size of the project.”

Last month member agencies conducted 255 investigations, completed 168 search warrants and seized 1,032 devices.

“We saved 60 victims from child sexual abuse material and there was an additional 61 children that were safeguarded. And when I say safeguarded what that refers to is protecting children in scenarios where there’s an increased risk of exploitation.”

Det. Insp. Whitesell admits this type of work can be brutal on the officers involved.

Among those charged last month were 29-year-old Kristian Lucas of Belleville for possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography and 43-year-old Ian Berger of Trent Hills for possession of child pornography.

Since the Provincial Strategy began in 2006, it has completed 65,564 investigations and laid 24,608 charges against 6,540 people.  A total of 3,470 victims have been identified worldwide.

Det. Insp. Whitesell says the investigations continue and anyone with information on these or any child exploitation investigations is asked to contact their local police.

You can report instances of online child abuse to police or cybertip.ca. If a child is being harmed, call 911.

Cybertip.ca is also a good resource to gather information to talk to your children about being safe online.