Sydney man charged in child exploitation sting - Cape Breton Post

Const. Colleen Fequet of the RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation unit in Nova Scotia, discusses a joint investigation into the exploitation of children in Halifax on Wednesday. The Canadian Press

DARTMOUTH — A Cape Bretoner is one of 22 people charged in a significant RCMP operation targeting online child exploitation in Atlantic Canada.

Steven Agnew, 38, of Sydney, was arrested along with men in the other provinces under Operation Snapshot II, which was announced at an RCMP news conference in Dartmouth, Wednesday.

So far, 64 charges have been laid to date. Eight of the men arrested live in Nova Scotia: Agnew; John Anthony Campbell, 60; Thomas Anthony Eisan, 26; Christopher Bayes, 46; Vernon Rae Sullivan, 61; Robert MacKinnon, 24; Leamund Knickle, 46; and Steven Bowley, 25. Most of the charges are for accessing, possessing and making available child pornography.

“It's important to remember that for each high-risk offender we identify, we have dozens of potential future victims,” RCMP Insp. Pierre Leduc told reporters.

More than 40 computers and 72 external hard-drives containing millions of graphic images of children being sexually assaulted were seized during the operation.

Investigators wouldn’t say what techniques were used to track and arrest the suspects.

Toronto police Det. Const. Chris Purchas, currently on working with the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, said the images in the videos and photos were “horrible,” and suggested they should be called “child sexual abuse material,” rather than “pornography.”

“It's not just a child lying on a beach naked,” he said. “It's a child that is being actively sexually assaulted. It is a rape of a child captured in image or video.”

Two children — one in Newfoundland and one in Nova Scotia — were rescued as a result of the operation, but no details were provided about the children or how they’d been rescued.

Const. Kent Luther of the RCMP in Newfoundland said one was related to a case in which voyeurism charges were laid, but wouldn’t say anything further.

“There's currently no risk associated to the child at this time,” he said.

Purchas said only one of the men arrested is a registered sex offender. The other 21 had no prior criminal records.

“The majority of offenders are individuals that have never had a parking ticket,” he said.

“They are the lawyers, the doctors, the teachers, the pillars of society who you'd least expect, sometimes.”