Law enforcement agencies working in partnership against the creation and circulation of child pornography are celebrating the arrest of 122 people in Ontario this past November, four of whom are from Kingston.

The Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet was created in August 2006. Since then, it has identified 2,009 victims of child pornography in Ontario and internationally.

“It is our fundamental and moral responsibility to ensure every child grows up safe,” Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum of the Ontario Provincial Police’s Investigation and Support Bureau said in a news release sent out by the OPP. “On behalf of the OPP, I want to make this message very clear: we will not stand for anyone hurting our kids. We will do everything we can to reduce the threat child predators pose to our children.”

Last month, 551 charges were laid against the 122 accused, including 11 youth. The charges include: sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, possessing of child pornography, making child pornography available, distributing child pornography, making child pornography, accessing child pornography, luring, and making sexually explicit material available to a child.

The investigations identified 55 victims. They have been referred to appropriate community-based resources for assistance. Police also seized a total of 17 firearms, three of which were loaded handguns.

In November alone, police found 843 unique IP addresses associated with the dark crimes. Police describe these numbers as the “tip of the iceberg” in relation to online child sexual exploitation in Ontario, the news release said.

Det. Joel Fisher of Kingston Police’s Internet Child Exploitation unit, said on Friday that the provincial strategy and his force’s administration supports his unit by purchasing investigative tools and funding cutting-edge training.

“[They also] allow us the time and space to run with the cases we think are important,” Fisher said. “Without both organizations being completely on board with what we’re doing, we wouldn’t be able to be as effective as we’ve shown we can be.”

When Kingston Police arrested and charged the four local men, they released the information to the public. In most of the cases, the men’s names were not released because the charges had not been sworn yet or there was a publication ban. The OPP released their names on Friday.

First on the list is 43-year-old Robert Burns, who has been charged with 11 counts of agreement or arrange to commit a sexual offence against a child, two counts each of failing to comply with a sexual offender information registration act condition and attempting to make child pornography, as well as one count each of possessing child pornography and making child pornography.

Then there is 31-year-old David Malcolm, charged with possessing, making and accessing child pornography, and 50-year-old Jody Macdonald, charged with possessing and accessing child pornography.

The fourth individual charged has since died, and the Whig-Standard will not be publishing his name as there is a publication ban on it.

From its inception in August 2006, the entire provincial strategy has completed 50,403 investigations and laid 20,901 charges against 5,686 people.

“Perpetrators of online sexual exploitation often minimize their actions by saying they were ‘just looking,’” Staff Sgt. Sharon Hanlon, OPP co-ordinator of the strategy, said in a news release. “Let me be clear: anyone who possesses, distributes, accesses or otherwise supports the supply and demand chain for child sexual abuse images are complicit in the sexual exploitation of children.”

scrosier@postmedia.com

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