Ontario child porn sweep turns up familiar faces and frustrations

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Massive effort, heart and tears went into a sweeping child pornography and sexual exploitation probe that spanned Ontario, but what will be the end game?

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On Wednesday, the OPP announced that Project Aquatic resulted in 64 arrests with 348 charges laid in connection to the far-reaching probe.

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Cops say the effort — combined with police services across the province — was launched in February and spawned 129 separate investigations targeting online child pornography and sexual abuse.

In addition, 34 child victims were identified and another 30 were “safeguarded.”

This should all be good news until you realize that the penalties for sexual crimes against children in this country are a joke. In short order, convicted perverts swing through Canada’s revolving door justice system and return to live on your street, once again poised to exercise their vile depravity.

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“We are working tirelessly to continuously apply pressure to those who seek to harm our children,” OPP Det. Staff Sgt. Tim Brown told reporters. “These dangers are not confined to the shadowy corners of the internet. Predators go where children go.”

The oldest person on the accused pedophile roster is 89, the youngest is 16. They come from across the province, encompass a wide array of cultural backgrounds, and are educators and businessmen.

There is even a ladies auxiliary of two in the accused group.

None of the charges for the Project Aquatic accused have been proven in court.

There is 42-year-old Cameron Ivens of Milton. He was an educational assistant at four Halton Region schools and he also gave private piano lessons to children in their homes.

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Ivens has been charged with numerous counts, including sexual assault, making child pornography, voyeurism, possession of child pornography, and exposure to persons under 16 years and more.

Not to be outdone, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) has educational assistant Tyler Pennells, 26, of Etobicoke. Pennells is currently on leave.

According to cops, Pennells was arrested and charged with two counts of luring a child under 16 years and one count each of invitation to sexual touching and transmitting sexually explicit material to a person under 16. Cops suspect there may be more alleged victims.

William Jeon, 29, of Toronto was arrested earlier this year for allegedly placing cameras in the bathrooms of two downtown Toronto coffee shops to clandestinely record female patrons in their most private moments. On that beef, he was hit with five counts of voyeurism, making child pornography and possessing child pornography.

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He was also busted in September 2023 after detectives were tipped that child porn was allegedly being accessed, stored and shared at a midtown location. In that case, Jeon was charged with making available child pornography, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography.

Several of the accused are also charged with breaching conditions. Take Neil Khan, 44, of Richmond Hill, and William Stinggay, 64, of Oshawa.

For Stinggay, this is his second alleged breach. He was busted by Durham cops in 2020 as part of a probe into “repeat child pornography offenders.” At that time, Stinggay was hit with 20 counts of accessing, 14 counts of possessing, and four counts of distributing child pornography.

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Khan was arrested in January, and charged with possession of child pornography, access child pornography, make available child pornography, and failure to comply with his probation. More charges followed in March.

Waving the flag for the fairer sex is Sheena Smith, 38, of Smiths Falls. She had been busted earlier for allegedly trying to hook up with another adult to “sexually exploit a child.” That’s not all: She’s now charged with making child pornography and a host of other related charges.

While the accused are innocent until proven guilty, the recent history of Canadian sentencing for such crimes offers us a chilling reminder — and that is how unserious this country takes sex crimes against kids.

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@HunterTOSun

Project Aquatic by Cynthia McLeod on Scribd

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