

Armina Ligaya and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press





TORONTO -- A Scotiabank employee whose online profile identifies him as a technology director has been charged by Toronto police after a teenage girl was allegedly lured through social media and sexually assaulted -- and police believe there may be other victims.

Suhail Shergill was arrested in Toronto last Wednesday and charged with luring a child, two counts of sexual assault and other charges, including possession of child pornography.

A police source confirmed to The Canadian Press that the 31-year-old works at Scotiabank. His LinkedIn profile describes him as the bank's director of data science and model innovation, a title that is also used in biographies for his various speaking engagements at technology conferences.

Shergill allegedly met the 15-year-old girl through the online portal Whisper and gained her trust, then built a relationship over a couple of meetings, the police source said.

"Once he had the victim's trust, he would become very aggressive," the source added.

Shergill allegedly invited the girl to a hotel, told her to enter through the back door to reach the room and instructed her to delete all his messages, the source added.

One sexual assault allegedly occurred in a hotel, and another in an enclosed space on two separate occasions, the source said.

"It was very calculated."

He allegedly used an app called Whisper, which allows users to anonymously post and share photos, videos and other content and is popular with teens, the Toronto police source said.

"We believe he also used other social media accounts and believe there is other victims."

Police have evidence of at least one other victim, the source added. No charges have been brought in relation to the other alleged victim.

Shergill did not respond to a LinkedIn message and emails requesting comment.

Scotiabank declined to comment as the matter is under investigation, and did not answer questions about Shergill's employment status with the bank.

Shergill was also charged with two counts of sexual interference, accessing child pornography and invitation to sexual touching. He appeared in court last Thursday.

Police are urging anyone who may have been subjected to inappropriate contact by Shergill to get in touch with investigators after the teen reported her allegations. He is known to use the username "Shawn" online.