Norway alerted Brandon police to child porn suspect

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This article was published 20/02/2025 (585 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The Brandon foster dad charged with child pornography-related offences was arrested after Norwegian authorities seized a device and discovered evidence connected to Canada.

Brandon Police Service deputy chief Greg Hebert confirmed that Norwegian authorities were investigating a suspect when they found evidence leading to Manitoba. They alerted Canadian authorities, which led to a Brandon police investigation that began on Feb. 3. The 37-year-old accused appeared in court the next day.

He is charged with assault, sexual assault, touching a child under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose and a list of child pornography charges that include making, distributing, accessing and possessing the material.

When he was arrested, six children were in his home, which he shared with a common-law partner, police said.

The accused is suspected of creating child pornography material with kids in his care, through a daycare in the home and through foster parenting.

Police said Wednesday more charges are likely as police further review evidence and conduct interviews.

At the time of his arrest, Brandon police wouldn’t say whether there were additional suspects. The link to Norway confirms one extra suspect, but in international cases such as this, many people are often involved, an expert told the Brandon Sun.

Tamara De Luca, the operations manager for Cybertip, under the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said offenders often act as part of a community that shares child porn.

While she was not able to comment on the Brandon case, she said offenders are usually part of a network that trades material, and so investigations into one person often lead to other suspects.

“That is typically what we see,” said De Luca, who works at the centre, which forwards about 27,000 tips to police each year.

“Generally, they’re connected in some sense, there really is … I don’t want to use the word ‘advocacy,’ but a strong advocacy that they have for one another in these communities. Oftentimes to even be ‘initiated’ into these communities, you have to share a certain level of content to be able to receive anything back.”

De Luca said offenders typically connect on apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. She said platforms are chosen for their encryption and because offenders know children use the apps.

CBC has reported that Norwegian police said this month the accused in that country had exchanged content with the Brandon man. The police service said the two used apps to share photos and videos. The Norwegian man was found to be in contact with others, not only the man in Brandon.

“He had communication with several people,” said Norwegian police prosecutor Jeanette Svendsen. “Same kind of communication about abusive material, about abuse of children.”

The Norwegian man pleaded guilty to possessing abusive material and being complicit in the rape of a child younger than 14, CBC reported this week.

De Luca said offenders commonly meet on social media pages. She said there are many examples of forums, and offenders find others with similar interests based on demographics such as age and gender.

The offenders are then able to communicate with each other and form groups where they can exchange material, De Luca said.

“In the comment section, you can go in and find somebody trying to sell (child sexual abuse material) and just go right from there,” she said. “Facebook pages that seem to be dedicated to almost sexualized child modelling images, or, you know, fan pages for child actors or famous gymnasts, things like that.”

— Brandon Sun