The father of the Barrhaven teen suspected in 30 cases of "swatting" believes his son has been framed.

And the source of new evidence that supposedly exonerates the teen is the same source taking responsibility for Friday's cyber attack on City Hall: the notorious Anonymous hacker collective.

The group cited police inaction on evidence they provided to investigators as the motivation for their hacking campaign.

Neither the boy, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, nor his father can be identified to protect the family's identity as the case is still pending before the courts.

But that hasn't stopped the father from speaking out.

He invited media to a demonstration on Parliament Hill on Nov. 12, where he hoped to present new and "verifiable evidence" that would exonerate his son, and tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting to share the evidence with Justice Minister Peter MacKay.

The same day, Anonymous issued their first press release, saying the teen is the victim of a "setup," and naming the individual they believe is actually behind the swatting cases, while at the same time pledging a series of cyber attacks that eventually materialized Friday with the hijacking of the City of Ottawa website.

But Ottawa police are confident they arrested the right suspect.

"We did a very comprehensive investigation working with the FBI, a lot of time and expertise went into the investigation, and we won't lay a charge against an individual unless we're more than confident in the evidence," said Staff Sgt. Rick Baldwin-Ooms, who oversaw the West Division investigators who made the arrest.

The investigation that led to the May 8, 2014 arrest was launched by the FBI and involved numerous law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada, ending with the 16-year-old boy pinned down on a quiet Barrhaven street, handcuffed and charged with cyber-crimes over a span of months, costing millions in resources as emergency responders were dispatched to the prank calls.

Police said the teen is a suspect in "at least 30 North American occurrences," leading to 60 criminal charges, including public mischief, uttering death threats, and conveying false information with intent to harm.

Police seized data transmission devices from the Barrhaven home and also found firearms and ammunition, which the teen's father claims are actually hunting rifles.

The FBI said the suspect was linked to prank calls targeting multiple schools in California, Maryland, Florida, Connecticut, and New York state.

Police allege the Barrhaven teen is the one behind the calls, but his father -- and Anonymous -- say the kid is the victim of a larger scheme, naming another man in New Jersey as the hacker behind the scheme. Anonymous goes on to expose the New Jersey hacker as an alleged peddler of child pornography, which appears to be part of the group's motivation for taking up the cause.

The boy's father said his son does not know the New Jersey hacker, and he could offer "no categorical evidence" of a connection between the two.

He was also unsure of what motivated Anonymous to take up the case.

"We have been given a great gift, knowing all along my son was innocent, but not having any way of getting the evidence to prove it," the father said.

The Barrhaven family's lawyer would not discuss how any apparent new evidence may influence the case once it goes to trial, but the boy's father believes the evidence has merit.

According to the father, months before the teen was arrested, the family were themselves the victims of a swatting prank.

In November 2013, police were called to the family's home responding to a caller who claimed to be the Barrhaven teen, "saying he was a hacker who wanted to confess to his crimes and that he was upstairs in the bathroom slashing his wrists," the father said.

Instead, police arrived at the home to find the boy and his parents enjoying a movie together in their living room.

The father also claimed that around the same time, his son was pulled from class on three occasions as a caller told police the boy was carrying weapons in school. That was also a prank, the father said.

But the teen's father said the most damning evidence arrived in the mail three weeks ago on Nov. 2, when a package was delivered to the teenager, containing a small personal computer apparently shipped from Amazon.

Owning or accessing a computer would violate the terms of the teen's conditions, but the family swears he didn't order the device, and the company could not find any record of the sale.

Anonymous apparently traced the origin of the package to the same New Jersey address belonging to the hacker they allege is behind the whole scheme.

Two days before the package arrived, a long-dormant Twitter account -- the @ProbablyOnion2 handle that police allege is run by the Barrhaven teen -- was suddenly reactivated with the message: "Seems good to be back."

The teen's father say there is no way his son could have made that post under strict house arrest conditions.

That same Twitter handle had gone silent immediately following the Barrhaven teen's arrest, and on May 8, taunted the RCMP by saying "Still awaiting for the horsies to bash down my door."

But on the same day, and with the Barrhaven teen already in police custody, the same Twitter user sent another telling taunt: "Someone I know got arrested because of me, loool."

Twitter: @OttSunHelmer

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