Joshua Boyle speaks to the media after arriving at the airport in Toronto on Friday, October 13, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

The Privy Council Office says it was not aware former Taliban captive Joshua Boyle was under police investigation before he and his family met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The information from PCO was obtained via an order paper question submitted to the House of Commons by Conservative MP Jamie Schmale.

“The Privy Council Office was made aware on January 1st, 2018, that Joshua Boyle had been arrested and charged by the Ottawa Police Service for several Criminal Code offences,” it reads.

Trudeau met with Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman, and their three children in his Parliament Hill office on Dec. 18.

On Dec. 30, Ottawa police laid 15 criminal charges against Boyle, including eight counts of assault, two counts of sexual assault, two counts of unlawful confinement and one count each of misleading police, uttering a death threat and administering a noxious substance.

The charges are related to incidents alleged to have occurred between Oct. 14 — one day after the Boyle family arrived back in Canada after five years of captivity in Afghanistan — and Dec. 30.

Boyle has said he that he and Coleman, who was pregnant at the time, were backpacking in Afghanistan when they were abducted by the jihadist Haqqani network and were subsequently held hostage for five years. Coleman gave birth to three children during that time and they were ultimately rescued by Pakistani commandos.

Trudeau maintained on January 9th that his office followed the advice of security officials.

“We make sure that we follow all the advice that our security professionals and intelligence agencies give us and that’s exactly what we did in this case,” Trudeau told News 97.5.

With files from The Canadian Press.